Matchmaking Wars: Stage 3
by Sinister Vortex
Summary: Now bonded in an indefinite truce, the Green and Yellow armies send a joint team into the alternate universe to find and stop the leader of the Red Army before they activate a terrible weapon that could wreck havoc on all of existence.
1. Off To Pop The Universe

1 – OFF TO POP THE UNIVERSE

Somewhere on the opposite hemisphere of XBOXL1V's globe from the Halothrii Wilderness, an abandoned hydroelectric facility sat lonely under a large rocky outcropping that jutted out and created a ceiling of stone more than a hundred meters above the facility. Abandoned with a hasty evacuation at the end of a battle just a few days ago, the now empty base still continued to pump water through the center of the encampment, a circular courtyard with a knee-deep level of water still in it. In one of its surrounding control rooms up above this courtyard , a soldier in brown armor stood in front of a computer terminal, looking to see if there was anything remaining in the base after the evacuation that he could swipe.

As his armor suggested, he was a member of the Brown Army, a consortium of mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, and guns for hire who sided with the highest bidder and scavenged whatever resources they could find in war torn battlefields (after the battle had ended, of course).

So far, the soldier's search had been uneventful. But as he continued using the terminal to scan for all remaining supplies in the base's storage, he came upon something which he found rather interesting. An enormous energy signature was emitting radio frequencies from nearly a kilometer under the base. _A distress signal_, he wondered.

But no, that couldn't be; no known base had levels going that far down below the ground. Not even military combat bases. And this place had provided power, not defense.

_It must be a natural phenomenon_, he concluded. He delved further into the data files of the base logs. The previous inhabitants of the base, the Orange Army, had been looking into the energy signature themselves, and studying it to the best of their abilities. They hadn't accomplished much in this regard before they'd been driven from the base by another group, the Red Army, but even so the Brown was able to discover that the energy signature contained enough power to run a dozen medium sized army compounds. The find of the year, if ever there was one. The Brown straightened up in excitement and turned to inform the rest of his team, who were patrolling and exploring the rest of the hydroelectric plant for anything else useful.

To his surprise, two fusion coils were standing directly behind him.

_Odd, _he thought to himself. _I don't remember those being here when I came in._ Being slightly distracted from his initial excitement, the Brown decided to check on the terminal again, and make sure he'd researched correctly. With a finding this big, he would look terrible if he'd misread and what he informed the others turned out to be somehow wrong. He pulled up the files he'd looked at before, and sure enough, they were just as genuine as when he'd first read them. Again, he turned to find the rest of his team-

-And found five fusion coils standing behind him, slightly closer towards him then the initial two had been before.

The Brown stared at the coils in confusion. He hadn't remembered the two fusion coils he'd seen before…and now…_five?_ Was his memory trying to play some kind of joke on him? He decided to take one more look at the terminal, in large part due to the fact that he was beginning to get a little creeped out by the fact that five fusion coils had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. This time on the terminal, he looked up food reserves, which was one of the things he'd actually been sent to look into. Unsurprisingly, there weren't any left. The Brown briefly recalled a saying he'd heard somewhere about wars in general: _An Army always marches on its stomach_.

Yes, that was it. Made sense too. You can have all the firepower in the galaxy, but it won't do your forces any good if they starve to death before they can use them. It was food, not weapons, that truly defined a war.

So when the Oranges had evacuated this base, they'd first and foremost taken all of their food with them. Not that the Browns needed any food right now. They had scavenged more than enough foodstuffs from previous battlefields. This time (ironically, considering the saying) they wanted weapons. Of which, so far, they hadn't found any. The Brown deactivated the terminal a third time, and slowly peeked around behind himself.

A dozen fusion coils glowed back at him.

The Brown reflexively twirled back to face the terminal. _Those fusion coils want something, _he thought to himself. Another part of his consciousness admitted this idea as insane, but another part of himself somehow _knew_ that it was true. It was as though he could feel the fusion coil's intent.

_Just keep looking at the terminal, _he thought silently to himself. _Maybe they won't notice you._ He sat for the next minute, just looking at the terminal, not actually doing anything on it but attempting not to look behind him. For many agonizingly loud heartbeats, he resisted the urge to turn around. But eventually he could take it no longer. He had to see! Slowly, reluctantly, hesitantly…he inched himself around to face the other side of the room.

The entire room was filled wall-to-wall with fusion coils.

The Brown jumped and looked in all directions in a panic. He didn't have time to scream before his life ended in a gigantic explosion that shook the entire base.

For a few seconds the base vibrated violently from the blast. Windows groaned in their frames, loose shingles slid off the roof, dust filled the air, and the water in the pool rippled. With a loud groan, a dead tree at the edge of the base uprooted and fell off the cliff the base was positioned on.

When it subsided, all that remained in the room were the fusion coils. Just as they'd planned.

Having perfected their technique just before traveling to this place, they had learned the ability to release a significant fraction of their stored energy without actually exploding. This combined discharge from all three dozen coils in this squad had been enough to destroy everything in the room, with the exception of the walls of the room itself, as well as the computer console, which had somehow been protected from the blast entirely.

Shortly after things had calmed down a bit, a thirty-seventh fusion coil literally floated into the room. The other coils turned slowly and faced this new coil in awe, despite not having anything resembling faces, or eyes for that matter. Once the floating fusion coil had reached the center of the room, it stopped and spoke with a menacing baritone: "Have you secured the base?"

"Yes, Lord Vincent," a coil at the base of the pile replied, voice much less deep than the first. "The other squads have taken care of the rest of the bipeds."

"Excellent," the fusion coil named Vincent stated. "And the energy signature? Does it have enough energy to breach the barrier to the other universe?"

"It does, my Lord," said a third fusion coil, who had rolled over to the computer console from the pile. "Our focusing techniques allowed us to keep the terminal from being destroyed in the discharge, and according to what I've found on it, the energy pocket under this base has just over enough energy to breach the barrier."

"Yes," Vincent mused. "The barrier which, it is said, must never be breached, the legendary Fourth Wall. Only legend tells of it, yet I have discovered it. And soon, it will be no more. For the component we seek lies in a part of the alternate universe that can only be accessed through this 'Fourth Wall' and we therefore have no choice but to destroy it."

"The component to focus The Hand!" the second fusion coil exclaimed in excitement.

"Yes!" said Vincent. "The component necessary to direct the awesome power of The Hand. The one we had before was destroyed by that terrible Green, but soon we will have another, even better than the one before. Then The Hand will be complete! And then, at last, we will have the ultimate device, by which we shall pop the universe by poking the fabric of space-time itself, and begin existence anew…an era of fusion coils! Ahahahahaha!"

The other coils in the room joined Vincent in his laughter. The cheering crowd of fusion coils rolled/floated out of the control room and onto a nearby walkway. As soon as all of them had passed by, a lone Brown peeked out from behind a rock, thinking over everything he had just heard, and whispered to himself: "What the _fuck?_"

* * *

Nome shot up from his sleep. He would have liked to sleep longer, but couldn't afford more than an hour's slumber, even though he knew it wasn't physically healthy for him. He needed to spend nearly all of his time constructing the portal, which was now almost complete.

Ever since the Yellow and Green Armies had agreed to an indefinite truce in order to stop the Reds, Nome had been working with a floating physics-defying metallic orb called Master Chief to fit together the components for a means by which to return to the other universe. The leader of the Reds (a fusion coil named Vincent, Nome still hesitated to admit) had somehow constructed a giant floating hand in the other universe which he intended to use to poke the fabric of space-time in their universe and 'pop' their universe out of existence, much like a bubble. The Greens and Yellows had managed to delay its use by damaging one of its components, but they needed to return to the giant hand and completely destroy it. And so, they needed a portal.

Nome looked around. He was just outside the Green's base entrance structure, in the southern half of a large canyon. The midnight sky glinted with the lights of thousands of brilliant stars and one small moon. Nome took a small moment to admire the sky (and to wake up a bit more from his nap) then turned his attention to the half finished construct before him.

Master Chief had nearly finished assembling the center ring, which would serve as the gateway the Greens and Yellows would actually step into. Beyond that, several tower like appendages of durasteel extended outward to form a distorted tree-esque shape that was taller than the Green's base entrance structure. However, it would be a lot taller by the time Nome and Master Chief were done with it. They still had so much more work to do…

Nome sighed. It wasn't just the looming task in front of him. It was the fact that the instant he had woken up, he had detected a dark feeling in the very back of his mind. A feeling that something very bad was about to happen, at Vincent's hands. A feeling that, even before poking the universe out of existence, Vincent was even now in the process of doing something terrible to the nature of existence. Nome had never been one to believe in supernatural things before, being the very scientific mind that he was. But after what he'd seen the Reds do on Yellow Command, and after his journey into an alternate universe stranger then his most peculiar dreams (and after seeing a telekinetic talking fusion coil), Nome was not entirely sure what to believe anymore. And so he had to take this gut feeling into consideration, even though, up until the last six days, pure instinct had been the only thing he ever relied on that was not carefully calculated according to well established scientific theories and equations.

Nome opened his tacpad and pulled up on its screen the schematics for the portal. Doing a bit of mental math, Nome calculated that they were only about 34 percent the way done.

Good thing they still had eight hours till they were scheduled to leave through it; he and Master Chief would need nearly all of that time to finish its construction. After that (assuming the design schematics worked) he, the other Greens, and the Yellows would head into the other universe. The Greens had already been there once. The Yellows, however, would have no idea what to expect. That made it a very good thing they would be teaming up with people who did.

Even so, Nome still wondered exactly how they would defeat Vincent for good. They had tasted the vengeful fusion coil's true power once before, an encounter that had nearly cost them their lives. In fact, if Skope hadn't sniped something important on the giant hand and distracted Vincent, they might very well not have lived to see this night.

But fortunately, the Greens had formulated a plan just this evening: they would try to enlist the help of a group of people they had met in the alternate universe, the Clan of the Caged Watermelon. They had fought alongside this clan in a previous battle and come out enormously victorious. Nome hoped that their combined skills would be enough to defeat Vincent and the Reds.

Nome's thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of Master Chief, floating down right in front of his face. Clearly, the orb wanted him to actually start helping, not just stand around and think. Nome decided that he was now awake enough to do so, and followed the orb over to the center of the contraption, the gateway ring. A long night was ahead of him. Time to continue work…


	2. Lime Squadron

2 – LIME SQUADRON

When the alarm clock went off at precisely 0800 hours in the morning, Skope woke feeling more rested then he had on the last several days. This was the first morning in a while that felt…normal. At least, relatively, everything else considered. He regrouped with Kenny, Kevin, Jess, and Mr. Boom in the kitchen, and then sat down for pancakes, a breakfast he hadn't had in a long time. Mr. Boom was a surprisingly good cook, _especially_ with pancakes. During the last week, it had been Nome who'd done most of the cooking, but the medic always insisted on meticulously calibrated and calculated nutritional food groups that were ordered more carefully on a plate then a solar cell array was to its platform, and the process usually took him far longer than his hungry teammates liked and often produced something that barely resembled food.

But this morning Nome was outside working on the portal, and with Mr. Boom, it was much the opposite from Nome's style; he whipped up the pancake batter in just seconds, and had it cooked in only a moment more. Better yet, these were some of the best pancakes Skope had ever tasted. He even pondered the possibility of having Mr. Boom take up cooking duty from now on…assuming he knew how to cook more than just pancakes, considering that he hadn't seen Mr. Boom eat anything else in the time they'd known each other. Though, considering how good the pancakes were, he wasn't sure if he really cared.

After finishing breakfast, the five of them headed up the elevator to reach the canyon above them. Elevator music, an enjoyable pop tune, greeted them as they rode, and furthered Skope's wonderful groove for the morning. It was great that they weren't trapped in some other universe with their lives constantly in mortal danger, or fighting on another army's command base against a force more powerful than any that had been known. While it was still a bit of a downer that he was at least partially responsible for the universe's existence being in jeopardy, and that he was about to join several members of another army to go back into said alternate universe for exactly that reason, he nevertheless relished in the fact that right now, at this moment, he was not afraid for his life. The elevator doors opened and the five Greens made it down the ramp.

Skope's groove washed away and dissolved like cotton candy caught in a tsunami.

An enormous contraption took up much of the southern half of the canyon. Reaching heights far beyond those of the canyon walls, this…thing…in some ways resembled a tree, but could also just as easily have been referred to as a twisted maze of branching metallic segments, or quite simply "a mess sanding on end". It was undoubtedly the strangest thing that any of the Greens had ever seen, even when compared with their journey in the alternate universe.

"There's no normal days left, are there?" Skope mumbled rhetorically and quietly to himself.

"Um, what the heck is this thing supposed to be?" Kenny shouted out. "It looks like some weird metallic variety of broccoli or something. I'm not really seeing the 'portal' aspect of it. This better not explode and kill all of us as soon as it's turned on."

When Nome emerged from within the contraption and began making his way toward the others, Kenny then revised to: "I mean, it's great. Sure it'll work perfectly."

Nome reached the other Greens, with Master Chief following closely behind, apparently having missed or ignored Kenny's comment. "Ah, good morning, my comrades. The night was greatly productive, thanks to the abilities of Master Chief to break the laws of physics and place massive objects. With the help of the orb, I managed to finish construction of the portal a few hours ago. I have been resting since, and now feel meditated enough to embark upon our joint mission with the Yellows."

"You don't know what sleep is, do you?" Skope asked the medic.

"I am of course familiar with it," Nome replied. "As a human, I must be. However, when in nights of little available resting time, such as last night, I often find it more effective to search my inner self and become more familiar with who I truly am. There is a great possibility that we will not return from our mission back into the alternate universe. I needed to recognize my will to embark upon such a journey before the mission begins."

"Wow, that's actually kind of deep," said Kevin. He looked over at Jess to find that she viewed Nome's speech much the opposite; she was concentrating just as deeply on her iPod, bobbing her head to some kind of teen pop music. She never had found Nome's long speeches to be that interesting, or even his short ones, and often used her iPod as a refuge whenever she got bored.

"Speaking of the mission, where's the other half of our team?" Skope asked. "This is supposed to be a joint operation, so where are the Yellows?"

"Did you really have to ask?" said Kevin. "This just _had_ to be joint operation," he added to himself. "So of course I'll have to fight with six other people who hate me." He was recalling the fact that only a day ago he had been the Yellow's prisoner. He had later escaped, only to be sent to the Yellow's _command base_, of all places, because of a mission by his own army's Grand General to help the Yellows defend their Command against the Reds. He was perhaps on better terms with the Yellows since that battle, but even so Kevin and the Yellows had relations much like oil and water. He was NOT looking forward to having to depend on them for his life.

Ryan's insanely loud throat-clearing noise alerted the Greens to the fact that the Yellows had been listening from afar. The Greens turned to find nearly a dozen people in Yellow armor staring back at them from the other end of the contraption, each armed to the teeth and carrying extra gear.

"I'm not normally a fan of weird shit," said Hearts as he admired the contraption. "But this is actually kind of impressive. Way to go, medic."

Nome nodded back at Lemon's sniper. "Why, thank you."

Patton stepped forward, scanning the combined group of soldiers. "Well, it looks like everyone for the joint squad is here." Six of the Yellows stepped forward; Patton went first, followed by Amber, Ryan, Clair, Hester, and another member of Lemon who the Greens had only been briefly introduced to when they were on Yellow Command.

"Um," Kenny put in as he stepped toward the sixth Yellow. "I've seen you before, but…who are you?"

Hester straightened up. "This," she said sternly as she motioned to the woman next to her, "Is my sister, Wren."

"Sup." Wren said, voice tinged with either aggression or excitement. "Nice to see the slags who Patton's been kicking around for the last couple days."

"Actually, there has been absolutely no kicking-" Nome started.

"Sure there hasn't," Wren snapped back. She sounded like she wanted to say more, but Hester put her hand on her shoulder to stop her.

Patton nodded and jumped in. "The six of us are the Yellow half of this joint squad." He turned and faced the other five Yellows outside of his group. "The rest of you will stay behind and guard the canyon."

He said it more to make it clear to the Greens that they were taking this seriously and were ready and willing to deal with any threat than to inform his team. They already knew this.

Another Yellow the Greens were less familiar with saluted Patton. "Yessir."

Patton then turned to the Greens and said: "I might as well introduce you Greens to the remaining members of Lemon you don't know about, even if you won't be seeing them for a while after this meeting." He walked over to the two Yellows, and said: "This is Tom…and Deryn."

"Hey." Tom said, voice mellow and relaxed sounding, quite in contrast with the massive heavy machine gun he was slinging. "Wish I could come with you guys."

"Yeah, save some kills for us, would you Patton?" Deryn asked, crossing her arms. "It's been too damn quiet around here recently. I want some action."

"You'll get it, Deryn. Trust me." Patton patted her shoulder, already becoming close with his younger teammate despite only knowing her for a couple days.

Now it was the six Green's turn to step forward: Nome, Skope, Jess, Kenny, Kevin, and Mr. Boom. "We are the Green half of the joint squad," Nome informed the Yellows. "The only member we are leaving behind is the orb Master Chief. Mr. Boom was originally supposed to guard the Happy the Giant Bomb, but after another talk with our Grand General, we agreed that the orb is more suited and able to deal with the sentient explosive should things go awry with it."

Master Chief flew down between the Green and Yellow groups, turned to Nome, and gave a nod with its single large eye.

"Yes, the Lord High Commander General informed us of what he knew about this orb you found," said Hester. "Though I'd like to know more about it, like what its motives actually are and where it came from. And how it does that crazy shit it does. But for now, at least, it seems trustworthy enough."

"And it can toss that bomb away real easy if it tries to go off," Hearts added.

Master Chief floated over to the Yellows. It orbited Hester and Hearts for a few seconds, until Hester motioned to swat the orb away like a fly, at which point it flew back to rejoin the Greens. Master Chief didn't seem particularly satisfied with its brief investigation of the Yellows, but fortunately didn't seem hostile to them either.

"Well then," said Patton to the Greens. "I assume you've been informed on what Bradley and the Grand General agreed to call our joint squad?"

"Indeed," said Nome. "Lime Squadron."

"_Lime Squadron?_" Kenny retorted. "Is that really the best the two of them could come up with?"

"Well," Jess replied as she took momentary break from her iPod. "Lime is a combination of green and yellow, so it does make sense."

"Although it's still a little too far on the Green side for my liking," Patton put in.

"Not that it really matters," said Tom. "We needed a name, we got a name."

Kenny shrugged. "Eh, it still sucks. But I guess it works. I'll go with it if everyone else will."

"It's good," said Skope. He then turned to Nome. "So, is the portal completely ready?"

Nome nodded. "I believe so. I have not yet had the opportunity to test it, of course, but I have checked and rechecked all of the necessary calculations and run several additional ones, and as far as I can discern…it _should_ work."

"Famous last words," Hearts whispered to the other Yellows. They all nodded or mumbled agreement.

The six Greens and six Yellows of Lime Squadron walked together to the center of the giant contraption, which held the gateway ring. The dozen soldiers crowded in front of it, somehow managing to end up in two rows which held three Greens and three Yellows each. Somehow Nome and Patton became the two in the front and center. Both looked each other over a bit, and then moved a fraction of meter away from each other, as though they were like-charged ends of magnets repelling each other.

"No pretty pony friendship, remember." Patton stated. "As with all truces, this one is finite."

None gave no verbal response, instead just giving the Yellow a slight nod of his helmet. He remembered all too well the previous times Patton had reminded everyone about the mortality of wartime truces, such as when they had first banded together, during the invasion of Red Base. He was quite used to it, and the threats didn't faze him in the least.

Looking straight at the gateway ring, Ryan commented: "It's kind of like a Stargate almost, except about a gazillion times weirder. And there's not hot female Captains to go with us."

"What about Clair?" Amber noted.

"She doesn't count." Ryan replied quickly.

Kenny instead was directing his gaze to the surrounding of the gateway ring: the bizarre tree-like maze of durasteel tubes and blocks that stretched up to impressive height. "I hope Nome knows where the ON switch is, because I _really_ don't want to have to go searching for it," he stated.

"All I must do to activate the portal is trigger the initialization sequence on my tactical pad," Nome responded. "No ON switch is necessary."

Behind the members of Lime Squadron came Hearts, Inez, Brian, Tom, Deryn, and of course Master Chief. The time for farewells had come.

Hearts saluted Hester. "Have a fun trip, General. I'll keep the Wilderness in good hands while you're gone."

Hester nodded. "The planet better still be here when I get back." Though that order was somewhat satirical, a considerable amount of seriousness was also detectable in her tone. It was rare in the history of the war for an entire planet's surface to be rendered uninhabitable by combat and occasionally nuking, but it had been known to happen.

"It will be, boss," Hearts assured her. "I promise it."

Brian walked up to Patton. "I'm so sad to see you go, Mr. Shotgun Person. I'll miss you."

"Likewise," Patton whitely lied. Then he turned back towards the gateway ring as though there was something he needed to investigate on it. As soon as Brian went back to the rest of Lemon, Patton stopped acting and turned back to face the Yellows he would be leaving. "A bit of a shame you'll have to miss out on saving the universe and all," he said.

Tom laughed. "Don't worry. With a six way war in heat, I don't think we'll have too much of a problem staying active."

"Best of luck, sir." Deryn added.

"You too," Hester told the heavy weapons officer and the pilot.

Nome opened up his tacpad. "Shall we go?"

"The only person we're waiting for now is you," Wren replied. "Hit that button and let's go kick some ass.

Nome nodded and hit a button on his tacpad. The entire contraption began to rumble, creating a strange roar which rebounded throughout the canyon and made the ground shake in sympathy. Then, in the center of the gateway ring, a point of light glimmered for a moment. All of a sudden it exploded in size, like a brilliant balloon being inflated by a jet engine's exhaust. In just the next second, the point of light grew beyond the bounds of the gateway portal, and even forced the members of Lime Squadron to take several hasty steps back. It was reminiscent of the portal that Vincent had opened up on Yellow Command's bridge, albeit far less controlled and quite a bit larger. Eventually the ball of light stopped expanding, and settled into a size that had absorbed not only the gateway ring and its platform, but much of the surrounding contraption as well.

Nome gave slightly embarrassed laugh. "I expected a circular plane three meters in diameter. Instead it has become a sphere ten meters in diameter. A s_light_ miscalculation."

"Is it...safe?" Hester asked nervously.

"In theory, yes," Nome replied. "An interuniversal portal has the same function, regardless of its geometric shape."

"In _theory?_"

"I have not had time to accurately test the contraption," Nome explained. "But I assure you that it will take us where we mean to go. If anything, this result confirms that this design works, because it bears great similarity to portals we have seen the Reds open, both on your Command as well as in Red Base."

Hester nodded. "Good point. Well, I'll call it good. Is everyone else in?"

"What other choice do we have?" Skope asked. "Unless you know of another way to travel into another universe."

"Please, you gotta ask?" Wren added snidely. "Jumping into random untested tech is why I joined up!"

The other members of Lime Squadron uttered agreeances.

"Ready weapons!" Patton ordered.

The dozen soldiers pulled out their armaments and made sure they were fully loaded.

"Move out!"

One row at a time, Lime Squadron entered the brilliant sphere of light that was the portal. At the instant the last person had entered, a calibrated program cut the power to the contraption, at which point the ball of light reversed size and vanished from existence.

The five Yellows stared at the place where the portal had been for a moment. Then Brian broke the silence. "Well, now that that's taken care of, time to move onto matters of importance."

Lemon turned to face the former Blue.

"Oh, is that so?" Tom asked him.

Brian nodded enthusiastically, and then leaned close to them, and whispered: "I've heard rumors going around that there are cookies somewhere in the base. If we look _really hard_, I think we might be able to find them."

"Lime left him with us on purpose, didn't they?" Deryn asked, frustration already starting to fill her voice.

Hearts and Inez nodded.


	3. HaloBall Extreme

3 – HALOBALL EXTREME

The twelve members of Lime Squadron found themselves in an echoing abyss of blackness. The Yellow half of the team looked around on shock and confusion while the Green half, having done this before, just waited patiently for the alternate universe to load.

"Whoa, what the hell is going on?" Patton called out, glancing around and seeing nothing but himself. "I can't see shit!"

"The menu is coming up," Nome explained.

"Beg your pardon?" Hester asked.

"The hell kind of menu?" Wren added, sounding as if she were simply continuing Hester's sentence.

"When we were here last, there was this thing called a menu screen that had to load up," said Skope. "Far as we could tell, it was like this hub from which the inhabitants of this universe could travel from one location to another."

"Uh-huh," Ryan said while nodding his head slowly.

As if to clarify Skope's statement, a white and blue colored grid suddenly appeared above Lime Squadron, and below it was the word "Loading". This remained in the sky for a few moments, and then their surroundings were replaced by a set of sixteen bars with words on them. The first twelve bars each had the names of Lime Squadron on them, with a small box with the number "0" in it. Following this, the last four bars said "searching for player".

Everyone stared at the sky in wonder, even the Greens.

"It is a peculiar place, this other universe," said Nome.

"You don't say," Jess deadpanned.

"Did this happen the last time you were here?" Clair asked.

"Yeah, it did," Kenny replied. "But we were with other people then, people we'd just met in this universe's version of our canyon. So it was faster."

Suddenly the message: "Players joined party queue" appeared in front of the list in the sky, and the last four bars in the list were filled with names that the Greens recognized.

"Hey, it's you guys again!" Exuberant Ned's voice exclaimed from the sky, echoing through the blackness. "Where've you been? And who're these other people? Friends, guys from your clan?"

Jess motioned up to the sky. "Yellows, this is a…person we met before. Exuberant Ned. And some of his teammates and friends. They are the Clan of the Caged Watermelon."

According to the list, the other three people who had joined along with Exuberant Ned were Angry Wet Sock, Penguin Love Party 1999, and French Panda, who the Greens also remembered from their last trip here.

"_Penguin Love Party_?" Amber wondered aloud.

"Nice to meet you too, Amber Stone," said Penguin Love Party 1999. "Not the best GamerTag I've seen, but it's okay I guess."

"Better than that one player called GetTheAbortion." Angry Wet Sock nodded with a chuckle.

"What are you talking about?" Amber shot back. "I'm a person, not a profile!"

The four newcomers were silent for a moment, then all burst out laughing in unison.

"Ah, that was a good one!" French Panda exclaimed. "I don't get the reference, but it's still funny!"

"You guys have a good taste in friends. These guys are great!" Penguin agreed.

Amber started to say something else, but Patton made a cutting motion with his hands and she stopped.

"By the way, what happened to you guys last time?" Exuberant Ned asked. "During that hockey game you all simultaneously quit. Was it a bad connection or something?"

"We were attacked from a being from another dimension and then teleported into a deep pit-like holding cell where members of a hostile Army intended to keep us for unknown purposes," Nome answered.

"Um…okay…" said Exuberant Ned, sounding slightly put off. "Let's hope it doesn't happen again. Anyways, I think we should try the Action Sack playlist again. Hopefully your guy's connections will hold out this time around."

"What the heck is an action sack?" Ryan asked. "And am I the only one who thinks it sounds really dirty?"

"I think it's one type of what they call a playlist," said Jess, quietly. "Sort of, like, a certain style of games they like to play in this universe. I think."

"Good, you're catching on," said French Panda. "That's as good an explanation as any."

"And what does that have to do with a sack?" Ryan asked.

"No, the type of game style is called Action Sack," Jess specified. "No actual sack, I think."

"Oh!" Ryan nodded. "Now I get it. Good name."

"Right, here we go," said Exuberant Ned, sounding as excited as his name suggested. "I should warn you guys, since there's sixteen of us now, we will get split up."

"Split up?" Hester asked. "But why?"

"Because there's too many people in our group, and for whatever reason this playlist only allows two teams of four per game," Skope answered while shrugging his shoulders. "It happened to us last time we were with these guys too."

"Eh," Patton groaned. "I don't like having to take a Green's word for it, but I don't see a choice in this.

"It'll be just like old times back in training." Hester said, actually sounding happy for once. "Sparing in zero-g..."

"Yeah. Good times." Patton agreed. "Just remember that we didn't come here to play games."

He directed the comment at Nome.

"What?" Penguin Love Party 1999 laughed. "Then what _did_ you come here for?"

"Who gives a shit?" Angry Wet Sock shouted. "Let's just start a game. I'm getting bored."

"Yeah, all right," said Exuberant Ned. "We've done enough talking."

The members of Lime Squadron heard the beeping of a countdown timer. After it had gone through five beeps, their surroundings suddenly changed color, and directly in front of them was a blue menu with four options. The first was Haloball on Haloball Court. The second option was Haloball Extreme on Haloball Court.

"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Penguin Love Party 1999. "Let's do Haloball Extreme. That's, like, the best thing you can get on this playlist!"

"What about everyone else?" French Panda asked. "What do they want to do?"

"We could to hockey," Kevin said, pointing to the third option, Hockey on Hockey Arena.

"No, bad idea!" Kenny exclaimed, shaking his head madly.

"Not a hockey fan, huh?" Amber asked.

"It's not that," said Kenny. "Hockey in this universe is just…strange. It uses a golf ball that's a larger size then us in our armor, our sticks do splash damage for some reason, and last time we played this-"

"The dark fog creature abducted you," Patton interrupted. "We know, and it's a good point. No hockey. Let's just do Haloball Extreme."

The others gave subtle nods of agreement.

"Wonder if it's like skyball," Wren wondered, referencing the training sport enjoyed by most of the armies.

"All right then!" Penguin Love Party 1999 exclaimed. "Haloball Extreme it is!"

A timer on the right side of the menu had been counting down from fifteen seconds as everyone had been talking, and time was not nearly up. But sixteen votes went into Haloball Extreme on Haloball Court just as the timer was on its last second. The option rose to the top of the list as the other options disappeared. Then everything went dark.

"I believe that the universe is loading again," said Nome.

Without warning Mr. Boom, Kevin, Hester, and Wren disappeared.

The others looked around in confusion. "What happened?" Patton called out. "Sharp? Wren? Respond!"

"Two games with two teams each," French Panda explained. "Looks like me and my guys will be fighting two of you Green people and two of you Yellow people."

"And that leaves four Greens and four Yellows to fight each other," Clair realized aloud.

The eight of them rematerialized in a large room with durasteel walls on all sides. Both of the walls on either side were slanted, in their centers were rings of circles, arranged like a giant target. In the center of the room was a row of four gigantic golf balls about two meters in diameter, sitting on massive mounds of fake-looking dirt. Nome, Skope, Kenny, and Jess stood on one side of the room, while Patton, Ryan, Amber, and Clair stood on the other. Each of them discovered that they were now holding a huge golf club.

"The goal of the game is to use your clubs to hit the balls into the goals," Exuberant Ned explained over the radio. "Obviously."

"This is actually a _lot_ like last time," Kenny commented.

"It is like hokey, actually." French Panda noted. "But a lot more chaotic."

"Oh God!" Skope exclaimed.

The four Greens and four Yellows stared at each other for some time, then alternated glances back and forth between the giant golf balls in the center of the arena and each other. After a couple of seconds had gone by, Ryan broke the silence by saying: "This is really stupid."

With that, the game began.

* * *

In a sister match, Hester, Wren, Mr. Boom, and Kevin stood on one side of the room while Exuberant Ned, French Panda, Penguin Love Party 1999, and Angry Wet Sock stood on the other. Their own game was about to begin.

Responding to Ryan's comment over the radio, Wren agreed: "Yes, this _is _pretty stupid." But nevertheless, she intended to win.

She made a quick hand gesture to her sister, and without any further warning the two of them lunged simultaneously at the two giant golf balls nearest them. They sung their clubs and upon contact the two balls sailed upwards and towards the targeting rings on the room's opposite wall: the targets the other team was supposed to be defending. Hester's ball went into the target unimpeded; her HUD remarked that she had scored her team two points a second later, and a shower of flaming skulls popped out of the side. Wren's ball, on the other hand, first collided into Angry Wet Sock, knocking him over and killing him (supposedly, since according to the Green's intel from their last stay here, death didn't carry the same meaning in this universe). Her ball's momentum had severely decreased in this act, and instead failed to make it all the way up the slope. It paused, then rolled back down.

And sure enough, Angry Wet Sock flashed back into existence a few seconds later. The instant he did, he began sprinting towards Wren in a rage, golf club extended.

But Wren had trained for exactly this kind of situation; once Angry Wet Sock was within range, she ducked under his blow, swung out with her legs to take out his balance, and topped that off with a spin that carried her own golf club straight into the overly disgruntled player's face.

The other three members of Angry Wet Sock's team watched in awe as their teammate's body flew at them and landed at Exuberant Ned's feet.

"Holy shit," Exuberant Ned exclaimed. "I've never seen an assassination move like that before!"

"Assassination?" Wren laughed. "That wasn't an assassination. That was a takedown! Classic Lemon Swipe!"

"Takedown?" Exuberant Ned wondered aloud as he turned to Penguin Love Party 1999. "I didn't know you could do takedowns in this game. Was that in an update or something?"

"None that I'm aware of," Penguin Love Party 1999 replied with a tone that was just as confused. "Maybe it's just her term for that one assassination? Maybe it only works with the golf club... "

As they had been talking, Kevin and Mr. Boom had been doing everything possible to hit the balls into the targets. They succeeded with one that got them two points, but after that French Panda decided to get in the way of their plans and started hitting the other balls away before they could roll up to the goal.

That was when Mr. Boom figured out how to launch himself; he jumped into the air while at the same time striking down on the ground with his golf club. The splash from the club propelled Boom towards the ceiling like a rocket, and shortly after he met the ground again…on top of French Panda. The player's shields flashed as Boom crushed him, killing him instantly. Now it was time to finish this game as quickly as possible, so that they could get to their real objective: having the players lead them to Vincent and The Hand. Kevin nodded at Boom, and the two of them both lunged for the balls in front of them. Kevin admitted that he was actually starting to enjoy this game, but he briefly found himself wondering what was going on in the other match.

* * *

The tie score of 10 – 10 was so prevalent that both the Greens and Yellows were beginning to wary. Nome made for an excellent goalie on the Green's side, but Patton and Amber, working together on their side, had proved just as impenetrable ever since the two sides had established goalies, upon the score that kept the tie. The four balls kept bouncing back and forth between sides of the room, never entering either goal. This continued for several more minutes, until all of a sudden a voice spoke into everyone's helmets: "Game Over."

The world began to go black, and as it did, a scoreboard came up that had everyone's names. A few seconds later the scoreboard went away, and the Greens and Yellows were rejoined with their other eight companions.

"Hey, you guys are back!" Kevin exclaimed as he ran over to the other Greens, followed by Mr. Boom, Hester, and Wren. "How'd your game go?"

"It sucked," Skope replied. "A perfect tie, nearly all of the way through."

"Huh," Kevin said. "Ours was the opposite. We won 25 – 0."

"Though I have no idea how," Angry Wet Sock grumbled. He then pointed at the two Yellows and two Greens his team had fought against. "This is not the end. There will be a rematch. You have not seen the last of the Angry Wet So-"

"Dude, calm down!" French Panda interrupted. "These guys are our friends, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," Angry Wet Sock revised. "Sorry. Action Sack gets my blood going. Never mind what I was saying before."

"We forgive you," said Hester. "As long as you never speak that way to us again, in which case there _will_ be a rematch."

"And I'll have takedowns for ALL of you," Wren added.

As the twelve members of Lime Squadron watched, the scene around them changed to another backdrop: a picture of an armored human and an impressive looking alien fighting each other, with several other armored humans in the background. On the right hung the list of their names. On the left was a picture of the Yellow's and Green's valley back in their own dimension.

"Hey, what are we doing in the Custom Game menu?" Penguin Love Party asked.

"I wanna take a break and just chill on the beach map for a while," said Exuberant Ned. "And also get to know our new friends a little bit better. Ask them about the last match. Such as, 'what the _hell_ was that we experienced just now?'"

"Um, a matchmaking game?" Wren postulated. "And domination?"

"Ugh," Exuberant Ned groaned. "No, I mean: how did you manage to defeat us so completely? We didn't even get one point in! And I've _never_ had a game like that, in all of my twelve hundred and seventy two game long history with Halo: Reach. Never."

"And that takedown!" Angry Wet Sock said. "How the hell did you pull that off!"

"Wow, sorry dude!" Kevin said to Exuberant Ned. "If we'd known victory meant so much to you, maybe we would've gone easier on you."

"You know what, forget it," Exuberant Ned exclaimed. "I'm taking us to the meeting place. We can take a break and cool down, and then maybe after that resume matchmaking."

A five second countdown timer began ticking off on the picture. Though Lime Squadron had all heard the sound before, this time they could actually see the seconds decreasing. Once the timer reached zero, the world around them darkened again, and the universe began materializing the new realm that Exuberant Ned meant to take them to.


	4. The Defier of Defeat

4 – THE DEFIER OF DEFEAT

It had been less than an hour since Lime Squadron had departed, and already Hearts was getting a teamwide COM request from Yellow Command that demanded they meet over a highly encrypted frequency. This did not bode well in the least, and Hearts hoped it had nothing to do with the members of his team in the other universe. He straightened up from the kitchen table and began making quickly for the communications room. Though Yellow Base spanned kilometers of underground tunnels, the kitchen was, fortunately, relatively near the communications room, and only a few minutes later Hearts reached it.

Inside he found Tom and Deryn, already standing around a holographic console in the center of the room. Brian was nowhere to be found, but Hearts gave that little thought. The over-caffeinated ex-Blue was probably still in his quarters gassing himself out on helium or something stupid like that. Hearts had never understood the logic behind Bradley's decision to allow Brian into the Yellow Army; the former Blue might be good at staying alive, but survivability and usefulness were two very different things, and Brian had not yet proven himself to possess the latter. At least he hadn't become a liability...yet.

"Hey," Deryn greeted Hearts. "Where's the ex-Blue?"

Hearts shrugged. "Does it matter?"

"Good point," said Deryn.

Tom held his hand over the COM switch. "I can connect us to the Lord High Commander General as soon as you're ready, sir." He then proceeded to stand there. "Are you about ready?"

"Yes." Hearts crossed his arms impatiently.

"Alright, then," said Tom pleasantly. "Initiating communications link now." He depressed the switch.

A giant holographic representation of Bradley's helmet, practically four feet across and just as tall, appeared quite literally out of thin air. Hearts and Deryn jumped back in surprise while Tom continued to stand silently. Once he had regained his composure, Hearts addressed the huge massless disembodied holographic floating head with what he hoped was a calm voice. "Lord High Commander General."

"Hearts. Good to see you again. We're trying out some new holographic transmission technology," Bradley replied. "How's it working?"

"Fine, sir," Deryn replied. "Unorthodox, but…fine."

"I'm worried the camera isn't moved in close enough, but maybe _you_ should tell _me_."

"Not a problem, sir," Tom said. "Not a problem at all."

"Yeah, you definitely don't need to move it in any closer," Deryn commented.

"So, you can see me fine, then?" Bradley asked. "This refraction technology is a bit unpredictable. It's hard to tell from this end."

"Well, we can see your _helmet_fine," Hearts answered. "That's for sure."

"Ah," Bradley resolved. "No matter, I can have that taken care of later. Thanks for the info. Should help refine this hologram projection technology more."

"Is that the only reason you called us here?" Deryn asked. "Over an _encrypted_ channel, none the less?"

"Oh, no, not at all," Bradley replied. "Just needed to get a few odds and ends with this tech figured out first. Kill two birds with one stone and all. Here, let me take a step back." The holographic helmet image shrank and resolved into an entire Yellow-clad soldier. "How's this distance?"

"Perfect," said Hearts. "Now then, what did you have to tell us?"

"Bad news. This came in just now, and seems to be in some way related to the portal activation just an hour ago. The portal design used primarily Green technology for its frequency refining mechanism, understandable considering who built it, and apparently someone recognized that frequency and came to investigate."

The others took a moment to figure out what the Lord High Commander General was talking about. Eventually Hearts postulated: "So, when the portal sent out this frequency, which would be recognized as a top-class Green Army bandwidth, someone important picked up on that and has come here? Is that what you're saying?"

Bradley nodded. "Not just anyone. Scans have tagged the arrival as a formerly Green capitol ship called the _Avant __Garde_, and it entered this system less than ten minutes ago."

"Former?" Tom quired.

Recognition sparked in Deryn's mind, and she searched her memory for where else she had heard of that ship. Eventually she settled on: "Wasn't that one of the ships the Greens lost during the Battle of Roster Teth?"

"That's what the Greens initially thought, and what our comm interceptions told us." said Bradley. "However, despite its absence after the battle, no wreckage from it was ever recovered. It had simply vanished without a trace. The same is true for one of the Purple's highest military commanders."

"Really?" Tom asked. "I thought all the Purple's commanders were all accounted for after the battle."

"Well, a fair number of them were," said Bradley. "But of course, it's impossible to find all of the bodies left over from ship to ship space battles, since incineration is obviously common. Therefore it is impossible to account for everyone, and consequently allows would-be POWs to fake their apparent demise and escape."

"Yeah, I understand," Hearts nodded. "Hell, Lemon pulled something similar back before Patton joined up. But where, exactly, are you going with all of this?"

"Nowhere good, I assume," Deryn muttered.

"Ever since the revolt at Roster Teth and the Purple Army's resurgence to power, both I and the Green's Grand General have been trying to find a reason for how they were able to come back from total defeat so forcefully," Bradley explained. "To accomplish what the Purple Army has, and in so little time, is a feat that only an expert leader could plan, let alone coordinate. Or more accurately, a leader with a record for being near infallible, and possessing unparalleled determination."

Light bulbs simultaneously winked on in the heads of the three soldiers in the communications room.

"Oh hell..." Deryn whispered.

"You're referring to the inventor of Vorennian-Style battle strategy, aren't you?" Tom asked rhetorically. "Yeah, I suppose it does make good sense."

Hearts shook his head and leaned down, setting his hands on the table and sighing. "He's back. Are you _serious?_"

"Of course I'm serious!" Bradley shot back. "Do you think I would ever joke to you about this? The strategies the Purples have used to retake Roster Teth and its surrounding systems is enough for confirmation, but now we've gotten solid evidence as well. From none other than the Grand General, I might add. It's become official: Admiral Hathrow Vorennius has returned, and he is leading the Purple Army."

"He's come back from the dead _again_," Deryn thought aloud to herself. "Goddammit, this war just keeps getting better and better: the Reds have already placed the entire universe in peril, and now we _also_ have to deal with another foe who is known for his ability to turn basically any battle around from the jaws of defeat using strategy alone."

"And that he has _most __definitely_ done," said Hearts. "Nearly every Purple on Roster Teth was unhappy with the Green occupation. A person like Vorennius, he would easily have been able to recruit a secret army, and then launch it as soon as the Greens were least expecting it. He wouldn't even need that big a force, he'd just have to deploy it correctly, something he could do quite easily. This is how the Purples got back in the game; it all makes sense now."

"Vorennius was enough of a threat before the Battle of Roster Teth," said Deryn. "Even though it was technically another Army's victory, I almost cheered when I heard that Vorennius was presumed dead. But now that he's come back, when both us and the Greens have our hands full with the Reds, the Blues, and the Oranges, not to mention the threat to all of existence…" She trailed off.

"Vorennius is a major threat and must be dealt with ASAP," Hearts stated. "Preferably permanently."

"This is where the three of you come in," said Bradley.

Everyone in the room turned their attention back to the Lord High Commander General.

"What do you need us to do?" Tom asked.

"Taking out Vorennius means we need a small strike force to get onto the _Avant __Garde_ and do what must be done before the Purple's leader can discover what's going on," Bradley stated. "The _Avant __Garde_ is, unsurprisingly, currently stationed at the edges of this planet's gravity well, giving Vorennius a near instantaneous escape time. If we brought in any of our own navy, Vorennius would flee before we have a chance to do anything. So, a stealth insertion is the only way."

"Sounds nice," said Tom. "It been a while since we've had to go in quiet."

"We haven't yet figured out how to get anyone onto the _Avant __Garde_ without any of the Purples noticing," Bradley elaborated regretfully. "That's the problem with ships: unlike land bases, in order to get in you need some kind of mobile craft, and Vorennius will certainly have thought of countermeasures for that. So I don't yet have an op planned for you. But as soon as we do find some way to get you on that capitol ship, I'll send you."

"Whenever you do, we'll be ready," said Hearts. "Just tell us when."

"I know you will, and I'm counting on it," said Bradley.

"Good day, sir," Tom said to the Lord High Commander General.

"And to the three of you," Bradley said as the hologram faded into nothingness.

Hearts stood up again turned to Deryn. "Any idea how much lemonade we have left? Because I need a hell of a drink."

"Yeah, me too," said Deryn. "And I think we have a lot. Thank you supply drops."

Hearts nodded. "Good." He then looked over at Tom. "Shaw, you coming?"

Tom shook his head. "No, I'm fine, thanks. I'm gonna look up anything I can on Vorennius and his ship. See if I can speed up our op preparations."

Hearts and Deryn nodded, then left the room while Tom stayed behind to ponder what he had just learned and begin planning how to deal with it.

* * *

Brian had a skip in his step and pomp to his stride as he whimsically sojourned across the canyon to see what was going on at Green Base. After Lime Squadron had departed through the portal, things had gotten boring again, and since Brain doubted anything important could possibly happen back at Yellow Base, especially not with three rather mean-seeming Yellows there, he had decided to explore the area around Green Base, mostly for the fun of it. Who knew? Maybe he'd find some important item that the Greens had dropped, and then he could return it to them as soon as they came back through the portal. And if not...well, he'd never really been over to the Green side of the canyon.

It was such a wonderful day. The late morning sun shone down upon the canyon, casting everything in a radiant glow. Off in the distance he could see butterflies fluttering about. And then, of course, there was the giant bomb.

The constant replay of the words "spiked kittens" could be heard from a distance of several tens of meters. Within that radius sat a giant metallic box with a smiley face on it, which was called Happy the Giant Bomb. Happy was capable of speech and was apparently sentient, and according to what Brian had heard, the bomb wasn't supposed to get to happy, or else it would explode. This was going to complicate Brian's attempt to make friends with it, but the former Blue nevertheless had high hopes. He'd had friends who were sad before. He'd just have to be happy for both of them.

As Brian neared the bomb, he could see another, smaller object hovering close to the bomb. It was a metallic orb, maybe a little smaller then a beach ball, which had a singular bluish eye. Brian remembered that the orb was called Master Chief. He also remembered that the orb could supposedly create basically anything out of mid air, which was awesome. Brain decided that it would be a good idea to make friends with the orb too, simply because it seemed like the kind of friend everyone should have. That, and it might help if relations with the giant bomb went awry. Though considering that the giant bomb was named Happy, Brian couldn't think of anything that could possibly go wrong with getting its attention.

Now quite close to the bomb and Master Chief, Brian noticed something intriguing between the two of them: Master Chief was just staring at Happy, and the bomb would every moment or so reply as though the orb was talking to it. At the moment, the bomb was in the middle of jovially ranting an answer to one of Master Chief's silent questions.

"Of course I'd love to tell you about myself!" the bomb exclaimed proudly. "I was created by the Red Army, obviously, because they wanted a new friend. Or at least, I think that was why they made me. I can't really think of any other reason. And you're right; the Red Army does have in its possession a giant hand. But I don't know about the device you're talking about. I never overheard anything about a device that could destroy the hand. They never really mentioned anything like that when they were building me. Now, this could be just my take on things, but I don't think they really wanted the hand destroyed."

The orb continued to stare at the bomb, and that was when Brian had the idea that Master Chief was digitally, not verbally, communicating with the bomb. Considering that they were both artificial intelligences (presumably) that meant that they could talk just by transmitting words, kind of like an email chat. Yeah, Brian liked that idea. It seemed to have sense to it and also made him feel smart, so therefore it had to be correct.

The orb continued to stare at the bomb, and eventually the bomb replied: "Well, in theory, if you had a parallel plate capacitor with that specific power-up artifact in between the plates, and then applied that contraption to the energy source of the hand, it should overload the hand's reactors and cause it to self destruct. Quite violently, I would assume. Now, that's my take on it from the information I've been programmed with, but then again I'm just a bomb. But if you can find a parallel plate capacitor ‒ I think there might be one in the Avalanche Weapons Facility's secret lab, from what I've been able to gather from Green Base's information ‒ and if you can also get your hands on that power-up we've been talking about, then you should be able to make something that can destroy the hand. Um, can you spawn a parallel plate capacitor, by any chance?"

The orb shook itself.

"Huh," the bomb said slowly. "Not one of the types of things you can spawn, is it?"

The orb shook itself again.

"Ah well," the bomb replied again. "Best of luck to you. I'd try to help if I could, but I think I'm so large that I might just get in the way. And in any case…I don't know how to move. Which would be problematic if I did mean to come with you. Well, I suppose you could carry me like you did that other time. But still there's the fact that I'm larger than the weapons facility. Sorry. Anyways, best of luck to you! I hope you find everything you need to save the universe. It's been so nice talking to you…"

The orb flew away from Happy as the bomb trailed off. It noticed Brian and flew over to him.

"Hey, Master Chief!" Brian said. "I saw you talking to that giant bomb over there. Something about a device that can destroy the hand and save the universe?"

The orb nodded.

"And how do we do that?"

Brian then felt something lift off of his utility belt. He looked down to find a pencil floating in midair. Master Chief wanted to use it, apparently. Brian helpfully pulled out a piece of paper and set it on the ground. Master Chief moved the pencil about the paper for a moment, drawing out a picture. The former Blue scratched his head when he saw the finished product.

In the picture, a radiant sphere sat in between two lines. One line had a bunch of plus signs along it, and the other line had a lot of minus signs along it.

"I don't know what this is," said Brian plainly.

Master Chief looked back down at the paper and added something to the picture. When the orb had finished again, the picture now had several arrows moving from the plus sign line and going into the minus sign line. In the middle, the radiant sphere was shown to distort the path that the arrows took, having them bend around itself as they moved from one line and into the other.

"I still don't understand," said Brian.

The orb shook itself back and forth in annoyance, then looked back down at the picture. As Master Chief was still figuring out what more to add to the picture, Brian suddenly had an epiphany. The arrow's field lines reminded him somehow of warm melted cheddar cheese flowing down a hallway. The memory was from some incident that had happened a long time ago when he was living at Blue Base Iota. He couldn't remember the exact details, something about a giant block of cheese and a microwave dish, but right now that was unimportant, because he finally had figured out what Master Chief was trying to tell him. "It's a cheese sandwich!" the former Blue exclaimed.

Master Chief looked up at him slowly.

Brian continued to stare at the orb, certain that he had figured it out.

Master Chief seemed about to shake itself again, but then suddenly changed its mind and nodded instead.

Brian jumped straight up in the air. "Yes!" When he landed, he said to the orb: "So, we can save the universe by finding a cheese sandwich. A really awesome cheese sandwich! I'm not sure how that's supposed to work, but if you do then that's great."

The orb nodded.

"Well, time for an adventure," Brain exclaimed jovially. "I'm ready when you're ready. Lead onwards, to the cheese sandwich!"

The orb turned and began drifting towards the eastern canyon wall, with Brain trotting behind like an enthusiastic puppy.


	5. Paradiso Resort

5 – PARADISO RESORT

The members of Lime Squadron, along with the Clan of the Caged Watermelon, arrived at a new location suddenly. The island Lime Squadron found themselves on looked very similar to the island that held the Avalanche Weapons Facility in their own universe, except that here there was not giant a set of durasteel walls containing a research base. Instead, the island actually seemed mostly deserted. The only exception to this was what appeared to be some kind of house on the shoreline, constructed of the same sort of materials that the HaloBall arena had been.

"You should all feel very privileged to see this place," Exuberant Ned informed Lime Squadron proudly.

"Why?" Kenny asked.

"This is our top secret location," Exuberant Ned said as he began walking towards the house on the shoreline. "The place where, in utmost secrecy, we convene to determine our next course of action concerning the defeat of the other clans and the strengthening of our own. This is the place the other clans can only dream of seeing, the black box sector that gives them nightmares of uncertainty every night because they fail to anticipate our actions.-"

"Didn't you download this map from that one gamer girl's file share?" Penguin Love Party 1999 asked French Panda. He paused, looking around, then said, "Yeah, this is definitely that map."

"I think I remember her..." French Panda said. "She was the one with the profile name with two words in it. Started with "LA" or something like that-"

"Why the hell are you telling them that?" Exuberant Ned interrupted angrily.

"Oh, were we still going with the top secret thing?" Penguin Love Party 1999 asked.

"Yes!" the other three clan members shouted back at him in unison.

"Oh, whoops," said Penguin Love Party 1999. "My bad." He then looked in the direction of the house. "Well, original or not, this is our humble abode. Please make yourselves at home."

"Not so humble is more like it..." Patton noted, looking at the house.

By now the group had reached the house, and before them stretched a walkway which led over about ten meters of shallow water before ending up at the house's front door. Being courteous, Lime Squadron was allowed to enter first, and single file they marched along the walkway and into the house. Despite everything they had already seen, the interior of the house was one of the odder things they had gazed upon yet.

Everything inside the house, including the furniture, the walls, and even the sofas, was made entirely of the durasteel-like substance that composed the exterior, and seemed to be prevalent all over the matchmaking universe. Off to their left was what appeared to be a sofa room, though given how flat and hard the sofas looked, the members of Lime Squadron found it debatable whether or not they would sit on them just yet, though the members of Lemon noted it would make a fine cover position in a firefight. In the main part of the first floor was a diamond shaped table surrounded by four stump-like durasteel stools, and a short radius from this was a kitchen section which featured some very odd looking appliances, including a conspicuously orange glowing stove, a completely bare countertop, and a sink which seemed to be composed of so few polygonal surfaces that it reminded Lime of a third grader's art project. But even stranger was the television. Sitting in front of a durasteel couch, the monitor was larger than any plasma screen Lime had even heard of, and did nothing more than glow a static azure blue. In the very back corner of the room was two-way shield wall which led to an outside semicircular platform with a teleporter node on it. No one went through it, least of all the Greens, because in their experience it had only really led to chaos and dangerous situations. Lime spent a minute or so wandering throughout the house's first floor, just looking at everything.

"Whoever the hell designed this place, they didn't get paid nearly enough," said Kenny.

"Yeah, well, at least I didn't actually make it," said Exuberant Ned. "Although the types of walls Bungie put into the options for Forge left a lot to be desired, so as the architectural look goes there's not so much anyone could have done. Hopefully 343 will do something more for it when Halo 4 comes out."

That sentence flew straight over Lime Squadron's heads, but considering all the other weird shit they'd seen in the last hour, no one really felt like commenting. They just left it as it was and moved on.

Exuberant Ned pointed with his assault rifle at a flight of stairs that was off to Lime's left. They followed him up one by one, though considering that the party now consisted of sixteen people, that took more than a few moments. Eventually everyone reached the second level of the house. Looking north, a long window looked out unto the sea. Behind them was a hallway which led to three small rooms and had a veranda at its end, which had also been visible when they were on the front walkway. All three of the rooms had a durasteel bed (_everything_ in this house was made of durasteel, it seemed), as well as various random items and supply crates.

However, when they got to the third room, the group stopped dead in their tracks. A giant six sided die dominated the northern half of the room, the side with three dots on it glaring back at them. But what really had caught their attention was something sitting in the corner of the room, seemingly inconspicuous but nonetheless frightening: a fusion coil.

Lime tensed, and Nome holstered his assault rifle and switched to his signature pistol. "Stand back everyone. I shall handle this." He aimed.

"Um, what are you doing?" French Panda asked.

"Let's just say fusion coils are bad news for us," Hester informed him professionally, leaving out all the details she considered "classified", which was basically everything. "Don't worry, we've got this one cornered. Deal with it, Nome."

"...Oooookay," French Panda stated. "Fine, I don't care. You guys are fucking weird, but I'm fine with that. At least you're not as bad as that one bad kid we tried to bring in. As long as you don't start betraying anyone, it can work-"

He was interrupted by a shrill shriek which was suddenly emitted by the fusion coil. As Nome was baring his finger down on his pistol's trigger, the coil suddenly jumped into midair via some kind of levitation, zoomed over everyone's heads, and shouted: "You won't take me alive, bipeds! You cannot hope to stop my leader Vincent from destroy-"

It exploded as Nome landed the pistol shot he had been intending to a second ago. The coil detonated in a fiery explosion which lit up the long hallway window looking out towards the sea, creating a temporary brilliance to the already impressive scenery. Chunks of the coil's casing flew everywhere, including one that soared straight out the window over Penguin Love Party's head.

"What _the fuck_ was that?" French Panda exclaimed.

"I have never seen or heard of a glitch like that before," said Penguin Love Party 1999. "And for a second there, it's like I could almost hear it…talking. Am I right?"

French Panda moved both his gaze and his weapon's vector sights up and down repeatedly, which Lime took to mean was this universe's version of a nod. "Yeah, I heard it too. Fucking weird, man. Theater worthy."

"Are you sure it's dead, boss?" Amber asked Patton. "We can't take any chances."

"Well you just blew it the hell up, so why the fuck wouldn't it be?" Angry Wet Sock, who had been quiet for the most part until now, retorted in Patton's place.

Amber shrugged. "Yeah, I figured. Just had to be sure. Double tap and all that."

Exuberant Ned cleared his throat. "Well, now that that's over, let's continue our tour of the house, shall we?" He led everyone back to the window hallway and pointed the nose of his assault rifle at a specific part of the wall on the other side of the corridor. A set of tan colored disks with the letters UNSC and a stylized eagle on them were stacked like bricks along about half of the wall there. None of Lime knew what UNSC stood for, so they ignored it.

Exuberant Ned was still pointing at the wall of disks as though he honestly thought the bathroom was there. Lime Squadron looked back and forth between it and Exuberant Ned.

"The bathroom is where?" Kenny asked.

"Right there!" Exuberant Ned said again. When Lime still didn't respond, he just stepped forward towards the wall, kept going, and…went straight through it.

The members of Lime Squadron uttered various exclamations relating to "What?"

Exuberant Ned reappeared through the wall of disks a second later. "This section of the wall is just an illusion," he explained. "Capture plates are really just there for designation, they don't really have solidity like everything else. So if you want to make something private, but still accessible, then you can just put a capture plate wall up in place of a door. It's an old Forge trick. Well, as old as Halo: Reach, I suppose. Which is still pretty old, considering Forge has only been around as a gametype since Halo 3."

Lime Squadron gave slow nods, trying to politely seem like they knew what Exuberant Ned was talking about. Ryan walked up to the capture plate wall and stopped, then looked over at the members of the Clan of the Caged Watermelon before gingerly steppeing through the wall. It wasn't at all what he was expecting; he just moved straight through the surface as though it was composed of nothing but air. The plates really _were_ just there for appearance.

When Ryan emerged on the other side of the illusionary wall, he discovered that, apparently, durasteel even had applications in a bathroom. Once again, EVERYTHING in the room was made of it. A sink, similarly devoid of polygons just like the one from the first floor, was entirely made of the metal. The same was true for the bathtub. Ryan tried to turn on the water for it, interested to see if it worked, but when his gauntlet reached the knobs they simply passed right through them like they weren't even there, just like the door. Turning around, he found the toilet. Or at least, a very poor excuse for one. A cylinder composed of several capture plates, stacked on top of each other, made up the bowl. One vertically oriented plate, situated above the bowl, clearly was supposed to represent the lid. Out of instinct, Ryan reached out with his right foot, and the tip of his boot passed straight through the bowl. He yanked it back as a horrifying realization hit him: Essentially, the toilet was an illusion. It did not exist.

"That's not right," Ryan thought aloud to himself. "Not right at all."

"What's not right?" his concerned CO asked from the other side of the fake door, having overheard his exclamation.

Ryan stepped back through the door to rejoin his teammates. "That bathroom…isn't real…" he uttered as though he'd seen a ghost. "That whole room is made of freaking LIES!" He then leaned in real close to the Yellow half of Lime Squadron. "Whatever you do, do _not _do a number in there. EVER!"

Patton looked at Hester, who then looked back at him. "I need to check this out," Patton said as he unslung Lucy. "I'm going in." He bravely strode through the wall of capture plates, and then came out about a minute later, shaking his head. "That room is a disgrace," he exclaimed. _"Unbelievable!"_

The members of the Clan of the Caged Watermelon exchanged looks. "Dude, it's just a bathroom," said French Panda. "WTF, man?"

An awkward silence followed with everyone in Lime Squadron staring at everyone in the Clan of the Caged Watermelon.

Finally Exuberant Ned broke the silence by saying: "Well, I think that about covers it for up here. There is a third level to the house, but all it has is this giant room with a huge table. Not much to really show there. But there is this one other place that might be nice, which can be accessed from downstairs."

With no one wanting to press the illusionary bathroom subject any further, Lime followed the Clan of the Caged Watermelon as they trundled back downstairs. Once everyone was back on the first floor, Exuberant Ned walked over to the semicircular platform with a teleporter on it, outside the back of the room. "Through this is the rock garden," he then explained.

Nome shook his head strongly. "We will not travel through teleporters," he said definitively. "During our previous journey through this universe, we have had far too many chaotic experiences with such things."

Kevin looked at Nome, then the teleporter, and back at Nome again. "Definitely something to take into consideration. If he thinks it's a bad idea, then so do I."

The other four Greens uttered agreeances as well.

Exuberant Ned let out and exasperated sigh. "Oh, come on! This is getting ridiculous! First you have some kind of shoot out over the fusion coil, then you freak out over the bathroom, and now you won't even go through a teleporter? What is going _on_ with you people?" He then looked at the Yellows. "What about you guys? Surely you guys won't be put off by a two way node?"

The Yellows exchanged looks between each other. Turning to her sister, Wren commented: "Well, they seem trustworthy enough. I'd be willing to take the risk. Besides, I want to see more of this place."

Hester thought it over some. "Well, if these people wanted to kill us, they'd definitely have tried to do so already. And in the event that they do try to pull anything on us, we can just shoot all of them. What do you think, Patton?"

Patton shrugged. "I'd be willing to give it a go. A rock garden sounds pretty safe."

Hester nodded. "True."

"Um, _what_ was that last bit?" French Panda asked. "You do know that this match is set for infinite respawns, don't you?"

Ignoring French Panda, Patton motioned to the teleporter. "Shall we?"

The six Yellows went into the teleporter, with French Panda, Angry Wet Sock, and Exuberant Ned following behind. Penguin Love Party 1999 stayed behind to keep the Greens company, having long ago lost interest in the rock garden.

Penguin Love Party 1999 looked at the Greens. "So then, y'all have teleporterphobia, then, do you?" he joked. "That's a first."

The Greens didn't laugh, not after what they'd been through last time they had ended up in this universe.

When Penguin Love Party 1999 decided the joke had fallen flat on its face, he laughed awkwardly and said: "Heh, right…"

"I've said it before and I'll say it again," Angry Wet Sock commented to the Greens. "You people are fucking weird. And not just you six, I'm also talking about the dudes in yellow armor as well; you're not normal, none of you."

* * *

The Yellows appeared under the arch of a vertically curved rock outcropping, which on one side was positioned against a large rock wall, so that it defined a small cave like structure. They stepped out of the cave and found themselves on a large flat grass covered lawn. The area was rectangular in shape and relatively small in size: perhaps sixty meters long and forty wide. Perfect size for a small base, Patton decided. Spaced throughout the lawn were large outcroppings of rock which stretched between five and ten meters into the air as though they aspired to be trees. The very center of the lawn had a large flat stone which looked somewhat like a table or platform, and seemed to be the centerpiece of the location.

"Yup, it's a rock garden, all right," said Amber. "It could be a lot more interesting to look at though…because it's a _rock _garden."

"It is decorative, though," said Clair. "Not to mention relaxing and peaceful."

"Certainly pretty," Patton agreed.

"Whoa, guys, check this out!" Ryan said as he pointed off to his left.

Three sides of the lawn were bordered by rock walls. But the fourth side, which Ryan was pointing to, was a panorama; it had no barrier, and instead presented a spectacular view as the land fell away in a cliff. It revealed that they were high above their previous location, because looking out of it they could see nearly the entire wilderness, and more than a hundred meters below them, across the water, was the island which they had just teleported from. They could see the house on the shore, which now looked insignificant in the grand scheme of the landscape.

"Hey, I can see my house from here!" Wren joked. Her voice echoed off the walls.

French Panda chuckled at the joke as he, Angry Wet Sock, and Exuberant Ned stood moved up to the edge of the land and joined the Yellows in staring out at the world.

* * *

The Greens wandered back outside the house, moving across the bridge and onto the mainland again, having been weirded out by the house. Following the Greens was Penguin Love Party 1999.

"Your guys's helmets look interesting," Penguin Love Party 1999 said. "They're, like, similar to the stuff in the Armory Menu, but different. You've all unlocked permutations even I don't have access to. How'd you do it? You guys got connections at Microsoft or something?"

The Greens looked amongst each other.

Then Kenny had the question: "What do you look like under your helmet?"

"Beg your pardon?" Penguin Love Party 1999 asked.

"That's true," said Skope. "We never have seen them take off their armor. I wonder what they look like underneath, since they're from another universe. Are they even human?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Penguin Love Party protested. "Of course I'm human."

"Take off your helmet, if you do not mind," Nome requested of him.

"Huh?" was all Penguin Love Party 1999 could think to say.

"Take off your helmet," Nome repeated.

"Doesn't look like he's going to do it willingly," said Kevin.

"Well we have to know," said Skope. "We're trusting these people with our lives. We have to get this figured out."

"Which means that if he won't do it willingly…" Kenny realized aloud.

All six of the Greens moved towards Penguin Love Party 1999.

"Um, what are you guys doing?" the player asked.

Mr. Boom moved behind Penguin Love Party 1999 and held him down, preventing him from being able to move his limbs. Instead of squirming, as the Greens expected him to do, he jerked back and forth, as though he was turning his body on an axis. "Huh? The _fuck?_ Why can't I move? What's going on? Hey, what're you doing?"

"It looks like the sealing mechanism is the same as our armor," Jess reported as she got in front of Penguin Love Party 1999 and took hold of his helmet. "I think I can get it off." She yanked hard on the player's helmet with both hands, but it didn't come off.

* * *

Observing the house on the shoreline through the scope on her sniper rifle, Amber suddenly motioned to the other Yellows. "Hey, guys, check this out."

Ryan took the rifle from her and looked through the scope. "What? Oh my God, the Greens are raping that other person." He chuckled.

In the scope's view, he could see Penguin Love Party 1999, surrounded by the Greens, with the really large Green holding him down and someone else standing in front of him, making back and forth motions with their arms.

Amber grabbed the rifle back from Ryan. "No they're not! They're trying to take his helmet off."

"Looks like they're raping him to me..." Ryan noted.

"I wanna see," said Wren. Amber handed her the rifle, and she took a look through it. "I can't tell what they're doing. They're at a bad angle, it's impossible to tell."

Now it was Patton's turn to peer through the scope. "Weeeeell," he said slowly, drawing out the syllable. "I guess you really can't put anything past the Green Army. It's interesting that we just entered a truce with them, because if Bradley saw this I think he'd reconsider. Horny bastards."

"Ew," Wren noted in disgust, then added happily: "I hope one of them tries that on me so I can test out that new shoulder throw I saw."

"Oh come on, they're trying to get his helmet off!" Amber countered. "It's obvious! Ugh, you people have dirty minds, you know that?"

Exuberant Ned, French Panda, and Angry Wet Sock were also staring at the event unfolding below, through the scopes of their designated marksman rifles. The three of them kept making utterances of "What the…", "The heck?", and "What is that?"

* * *

Jess yanked on Penguin Love Party's helmet as hard as she could, but to no avail. "It's not coming off," she reported frustratedly. She continued to pull. "What the hell did he seal it with, super glue?

"Hey guys…" Kevin trailed off while looking over to the house's motor pool, which was located on the eastern side of the house.

Everyone but Jess and Mr. Boom (who were preoccupied with the player's helmet) looked over to the motor pool and gasped. The vehicles inside were teleporting back and forth across the room by themselves, spontaneously jumping around between several different locations.

"What phenomenon could be behind this?" Nome wondered aloud.

"Stop!" Penguin Love Party 1999 shouted. "Whatever you're doing to me is making the game glitch out!"

"I think I've almost got it off!" Jess exclaimed through clenched teeth as the exerted the full extent of her strength on Penguin Love Party 1999's head.

Suddenly Penguin Love Party 1999 managed to jerk free of Mr. Boom's grasp and lunged at Jess. She dodged out of the way, but as soon as she did she noticed something on her shoulder: a ball that was glowing a brilliantly hot blue and sounded as though it was charging up, a possibility backed up by the high-pitched whine it emitted, which grew louder every instant. She only had about two seconds to start asking "What is tha-" before the ball exploded in a halo of blue and purple gas, and Jess was sent flying about twenty meters inland, where she rolled a couple of times on the ground and then lay motionless.

Everyone raced to where she was now laying. Nome looked her body over for a few seconds, then turned to Penguin Love Party 1999 and asked: "What did you stick to her shoulder? Because now she is not registering any biosigns."

"Oh shit, she's dead." Skope translated.

The group exploded with gasps of surprise and shock, as well as a refocusing of attention towards Penguin Love Party 1999. "I stuck her with a plasma grenade," he explained quickly and nervously, noticing the slightly raised weapons of the Greens around her. "I had to, as self defense." He then let out a long sigh. "Look, I'm sorry I betrayed her. As long as you don't do…whatever it was you were doing to me…again, I won't betray any more of you. Got that?"

"So you killed her!" Skope countered angrily. "You bastard!"

"I'm sorry!" Penguin Love Party 1999 protested. "Geez, you guys take everything so seriously here!"

Nome reached down to Jess's body, intending to take off her helmet so that everyone could look upon her face solemnly for the final time. The medic tenderly put his gauntlets around her visor, tugged, and pulled off her helmet. What they saw underneath triggered another round of gasps.

Inside Jess's armor was nothing but vacuum, for air rushed in to fill a void of nothingness as soon as the helmet was removed. There was no body. The armor was completely empty. In fact, it didn't look like there was ANYTHING inside it.

Everyone stared in confusion at the empty armor for a moment or two, until the silence was broken by a familiar voice saying: "Hey, what are you guys all staring at?"

The group turned in unison to find Jess standing behind them, completely fine, apparently still in her armor.

Kenny did a double take and alternated gaze between Jess and the empty suit of armor.

Jess walked to the center of the group, where the empty armor was, and said: "Hey, is that my armor? But no…my armor's on. I'm wearing it! What…"

"_Jess,_" Skope asked finally, having been stunned by the series of bizarre twists of the last two minutes. "You just DIED. How are you still here?"

Jess thought for a moment. "Well, the last thing I remember is tugging on Penguin Love Party 1999's helmet, and then he got free somehow, and as I jumped back I noticed this glowey thing on my shoulder, and then were was this bright light all of a sudden, then it got dark for a couple seconds, and the next thing I know I'm standing alone on the other side of the island. I walked back over here to you guys."

"What's all the confusion about?" Penguin Love Party 1999 asked. "When I got free, I reflexively stuck her with a plasma grenade, she died, and then she respawned. End of story."

"This universe is so strange," said Kevin. "I give up. I'm not even going to try to understand what's going on anymore."

"Yeah, totally with you there," said Kenny. "I'm just glad Jess is still alive…somehow."

* * *

High up above the house, staring out from the edge of the rock garden, the Yellows watched through the scopes of their precision weapons, all deep in thought after witnessing from afar what had just happened.

"You can't actually die in this universe," said Hester. "My God, this has _tremendous_ implications. Tactical AND statistical!"

"Sure does," Angry Wet Sock joked from behind the line of Yellows. "Just like in basically every shooter game, dying has no consequence. Case and point-" He tossed another glowing ball through the air, which landed on Patton.

"Boss!" Clair shrieked in surprise.

Patton looked down at his chest, which was now a lot more flashy then it had been a second ago. "Shit!" He howled, then hurled himself over the cliff. A second later, the ball exploded in a cloud of blue light.

The other Yellows jumped back just in time to avoid taking damage from the blast.

"Oh shit, Patton..." Wren whispered.

Once the tremor had subsided, Angry Wet Sock walked over to where Patton had stood and picked up Lucy. "Cool, he had a shotgun!" he exclaimed. "My turn to use it."

"Hey, let's not go betraying everyone just yet," Exuberant Ned protested. "I brought us here to relax and take a break, not to start killing each other."

"Yeah, you're right," said Angry Wet Sock. "I just felt like sticking him, that's all. This is Halo, after all. Gotta kill something every now and then. Keeps your skills fresh, you know?"

He heard something and turned to find Patton striding toward him angrily.

"That's my shotgun," Patton stated as he stopped right in Angry Wet Sock's face.

"Finders keepers," Angry Wet Sock countered. "Mine now."

"I said, that's _my shotgun_."

"Piss off, man," Angry Wet Sock laughed. "You respawned with assault rifle, I see. Just use that."

Patton reached out to Angry Wet Sock and yanked Lucy from his hands. Then he jammed the assault rifle into its previous place in Angry Wet Sock's grasp. As Angry Wet Sock looked up in shock and began to cry "What the-" Patton then drew back his arm holding the shotgun and smacked Angry Wet Sock with a roundhouse swipe clear across his helmet, sending him careening over the cliff's edge and into the watery abyss below.

A moment later, Angry Wet Sock reappeared, and just stood there for a moment, stunned. "Dude," he said. "You guys are the best modders _I've ever seen!_"

"Don't you dare thank me," said Patton. "Touch Lucy again, and I'll 'betray' you so much that your infinite supply of lives will run out. That understood?"

Angry Wet Sock slowly nodded, or as much as he was able to.

Exuberant Ned and French Panda had also been watching the scene unfold. Exuberant Ned said: "Okay, I don't know that the heck that was just now, but I think enough fighting is enough. Like I said before, I didn't take us here to betray each other, I took us here to chill out. So no more fighting, or I'm taking us back into matchmaking. Is that clear?" He faced mainly Angry Wet Sock as he finished the sentence.

"Yeah, fine," said Angry Wet Sock. He turned to Patton. "Sorry about that. Won't happen again."

"You bet it won't." Patton agreed.

With that, the Yellows and clan members turned toward the teleporter that would take them back to the island.


	6. The Army and the Admiral

6 – THE ARMY AND THE ADMIRAL

A hemispherical dome, composed of fracture proof reinforced glass, let in the light of many thousands of stars which cast the otherwise dark interior of the dome in a luminescent sheen that was the light's reflection off of the durasteel grating of the floor. The dome itself was thirty meters in diameter, and in its center a holographic console glowed with a three dimensional representation of the planet XBOXL1V, which hung in the air above the console ominously and contrasted the surrounding darkness of the chamber with blue, green, and grey colored light.

From behind the console the sound of footsteps could be heard; slow, purposeful, loud. Striding into the room were six soldiers in purple armor wearing the tags of generals. Methodically, they surrounded the hologram and then stood in place. For a short moment they all observed the hologram, making particular note of an icon above the planet's surface, labeled "Yellow Command". A command base valuable to know the location of, but not what the Purple Army was after.

A voice beckoned the general's attention to the other side of the dome, the section opposite the one they had entered from. Slowly, the generals turned to face the source of this voice. Just barely visible in the darkness about the edges of the dome was the faint outline of a command chair. A figure then emerged from the chair, rising from the metal throne like a dragon exiting from its den. More footsteps could now be heard, this time loud and powerful. The figure came into the light of the hologram, and the generals saluted in reverence and respect to the soldier in their midst.

Admiral Hathrow Vorennius, leader of the Purple Army.

He was an impressive figure; unlike some other soldiers of his rank in other armies, Vorennius was still in fighting shape, lithe and fit like a great cat. On his waist hung an energy sword, taken from the Green General in charge of the occupation of Roster Teth. The slightly battered green-colored secondary plating on his armor showed that its original owner had not given it willingly, and had paid for his attempt to keep it from Vorennius with the weapon, his armor, and his life. The armor and the sword were both reminders and trophies of the victory of the revolution.

The voice of the Admiral was slow and deliberate, yet also carried an intentful authority that commanded attention without the need for force. "Gentlemen, my fellow soldiers, I have gathered you here to discuss the plans regarding the planet which we are now observing."

He motioned to the hologram of XVOXL1V.

"The reason why I have brought the _Avant Garde_ here and stationed a stand by fleet of a dozen ships in slipspace, is because we have finally determined the location of the heart and soul of the army which we all upmostly despise. Though the Yellows have a command base stationed in orbit, as you can see here, there is another Command on this planet which is central to our chief adversaries."

"The central command city of the Green Army?" one of the generals asked in awe. "The rumored Centerpoint City?"

Vorennius nodded. "Yes, Centerpoint City. The Greens have done an efficient job of keeping it secret until now. But just a few hours ago we detected a high priority signal which was emitted all over the planet, and was subsequently picked up by our forces stationed on the other hemisphere. We now know from recent field intel that the signal came from a device constructed by a joint team of Green and Yellow soldiers. However, such a signal is unique only to the very highest levels of the Green Command chain. Which means that, somehow, this device was tied with them. And that can only mean that their primary command base is stationed somewhere on this planet."

The generals mumbled amongst each other, coming to grips with the new, glorious information.

Vorennius continued: "This is the moment we have been waiting for since the Battle of Roster Teth, my fellow soldiers. Soon we will have justice for what the Greens did to us three years ago. We will do to the Greens what they have done to us, and in the process ensure that the Greens are _crushed_ so that such a defeat never happens to us again. With the conquest of this planet, justice and victory shall be ours."

Vorennius again reached out to XBOXL1V's hologram, and the way his hand moved in the diffracted light made it appear as though his gauntlet was reaching out to grasp the world in his fingers.

As the Admiral retracted his hand, his mind seemed to change subjects of thought, and he then turned to the general standing to his left. "Now then, General Wilhuff, your report on the progress of the current campaign on the planet's surface?"

Gorn Wilhuff, the General in charge of the Purple forces already on the surface of XBOXL1V, straightened up.

"Admiral, the battles on the planet have had...mixed results as of yet. Though we have taken considerable territory on the irradiated side of the planet, it is not particularly valuable to any of the armies currently on the planet, we have not had such success on the other, "clean" side of this world."

The General pointed to the other hemisphere of the planet, which had the resource rich continent containing the Halothrii Wilderness and surrounding areas. "Our spy program, which, if you remember, was designed to infiltrate bases of the other armies and gain whatever information possible, has been met mostly with defeat. The soldiers of the opposing armies are, as a whole, surprisingly paranoid. We have had to recall most of our informants because they came too close to being discovered by the inhabitants of their assigned base. Even worse, one such informant was captured by a Yellow base, then interrogated, and eventually forced to reveal information which led to the Yellows laying siege to one of our own encampments, the outpost set up to study the alien technology we found under this point here."

The General pointed to a spot on the hologram.

"Not long after, this same informant was captured by the Red Army during their assault on the Halothrii Wilderness, and has not been heard from since."

Vorennius sighed in disgust. "Failures such as this are unacceptable. Clearly, this spy program is ineffective and cumbersome as a strategy against these current enemies; I hereby order all informants on the planet to return to our ships."

"Yessir," said Wilhuff, the disappointment clear in his voice.

"Fortunately, this turn of events can be used to support our new plans," Vorennius continued. "As of now, I am now taking command of all forces we have stationed, both on land an in nearby space, around XBOXL1V. General Wilhuff, you will go back to Roster Teth; recent developments there have resulted in calls for increased defenses, and you are just the person I need to take command of that situation while I deal with this current one."

Wilhuff nodded. "I will not fail you again, sir."

"You have not failed me," corrected Vorennius. "You performed as well as possible given the situation and your specific skill, and that is why I am relocating your command. This situation requires more productivity than a spy network can generate; Even the Orange prisoners we have captured and placed under interrogation have not yet revealed the location of Centerpoint city, despite the fact that just a day ago they launched their own attack upon it. But now that I am in command here, our presence in this sector will be heightened to the point that we can effectively scan and scour the planet, without having to rely on questionable information gathered by secret agents. Our true campaign against the Green Army has finally begun, and soon Centerpoint City will be ours."

The generals nodded strongly in agreement.

Wilhuff commented "Retribution has been far too long in coming, sir. It's about time we gave the Greens hell."

"Yes," said Vorennius. "Our plans will soon see fruition. We have taken a considerable risk in revealing our presence by bringing the _Avant Garde_ within range of enemy scanners on this world. The Grand General of the Green Army, I am sure, knows of my existence now. He knows that I am very much alive and just as much a threat to the Greens as I was a few years ago. But, what he doesn't know is that our ships have cloaking technology. By revealing our presence, we have lulled the Greens into a false sense of security, for they believe that as long as we are out of slipspace we cannot hide. This advantage will come into great use when we launch an attack in their capitol city."

Vorennius then leaned closer to the console and set his gauntlets on its perimeter. The generals moved in closer in anticipation, for this was a sign that the Admiral was about to give a speech. They were correct.

"Three years ago, we were defeated," said the Admiral. "Our capitol world was occupied. Our faction was deemed to be out of the war. But then we stuck back. We rebelled and led an attack that devastated the Green occupiers of Roster Teth. We took back our world."

His hand subconsciously went to the hilt of his energy sword as he recalled the events.

"But we didn't stop there. We then proceeded to reclaim the surrounding systems. Managed to drive the Greens from the entire sector. We even began a shipyard, a battlecruiser production facility which has created the two ships that will comprise the lead attack wave for our assault on Centerpoint City. The Greens may think we are still beaten, but they are _sorely_ mistaken. In the coming days we will see the beginning of the greatest chapter of our Army's history. There will be conquest. There will be victory. And in order to achieve these ends, _there will be war."_

Silence filled the room as the generals absorbed everything Vorennius had just said, even though the majority of them knew this already, having fought by Vorennius's side during those very fights.

The Admiral was about to speak more, but suddenly he was interrupted by a bleeping from the hologram of XBOXL1V. The Admiral waved his palm and the projection rotated so that the source of the bleeping was facing him. The signal was coming from the war torn and irradiated side of the planet, the one the Purple's had a larger presence in. Zooming in, the picture revealed what the system tagged as a hydroelectric facility, previously an Orange base. The signal was not originating from the base itself, but rather from more than a kilometer underneath it.

From behind Vorennius, made only visible by the blocking of the view of some stars, a shadow slithered towards the group of Purples. This visage soon resolved into the form of a soldier in dark, almost black, purple armor. The Admiral did not need to turn around to know that this was his advisor and bodyguard, Nezilus Thane. Thane stood taller than all other soldiers in the room, even a full helmet's height taller than Vorennius himself. He was also extremely thin, for a soldier in armor, which added to his towering appearance. He presented a threatening sight as he moved towards the generals, even though they already knew very well that he was on their side, and were very glad for it. Thane moved very quickly for his size; almost completely silently yet at the same time so swiftly and gracefully that it seemed to border on human capability. As the abnormally tall soldier reached Vorennius' side, he spoke in a deep voice that flowed through every syllable like water through a river's path. "Our scanners have detected an energy signature at this location. It just released a powerful discharge, equal enough to several fusion reactors in simultaneous operation. It could be important; Admiral, I recommend that we send some soldiers we have on the ground already to investigate the base."

Vorennius nodded. "Yes, I agree. At such an early stage in our conquest of this world we need to gather all the resources we can find. Something with that much power could be quite useful." To the hologram he said: "Display nearest ground forces."

The hologram fizzled for a moment as it recalibrated, then displayed a second icon over a location roughly three kilometers from the hydroelectric facility. Vorennius touched the icon with his index finger and then moved the tip of his gauntlet across the holographic planet's surface in a straight line that connected the nearby Purple base to the energy signature. As soon as he lifted his finger, the path he had traced out was replaced with the symbol of a purple arrow. "Order sent," the _Avant Garde's_ artificial intelligence reported. "Estimated time of arrival is five minutes."

Vorennius smiled under his helmet, then turned back to his officers to continue planning the exact nature of the destruction of the Green Army.


	7. Luminous Devotion

7 – LUMINOUS DEVOTION

Several hundred meters below the hydroelectric facility, a horde of fusion coils rolled down a cavernous path. For the past couple of hours, they had been using their powers to remove rubble in order to create an underground passage that would lead them to the energy signature they sought. They had made considerable progress and were very close now; the capacitance in the air made their containment shells tingle with anticipation. The tunnels began to widen in diameter as the horde of coils progressed. At the same time, the ground the coils rolled on became flatter.

Suddenly the path abruptly blossomed into a gigantic cavern. The walls stretched out in all directions as the cave system revealed a sprawling chamber. Walls colored dark purple and indigo lined the edges of the chamber and were illuminated with lights of similar color that cast the chamber in a dark but striking hue. But the interior of the chamber was what was most striking of all: stacked throughout the majority of the chamber's volume were thousands of oddly shaped containers. Each about a meter high and irregular but debatably cylindrical in shape, each of these containers let off a glow similar in hue to that of the rest of the chamber.

Vincent and his horde of fellow fusion coils rolled in and looked about the chamber with awe.

"_Halt!_" a barrage of voices suddenly exclaimed from the mountain of containers on front of them. "Whom dares to enter this chamber? You are treading upon sacred ground!"

The band of fusion coils stopped in their tracks. Vincent took a moment to think of what he deemed the best response, and then loudly called back: "An impressive number of you reside here. I greet all of you. We have come here seeking an energy signature in the hopes of utilizing it to-"

"This room is sacred ground!" a single voice proclaimed. To back this up, a single container rolled off of the mountain and came to rest in front of Vincent. "You will abandon your search and go back the way you came."

"Are you the leader of this…mound?" Vincent asked it.

"Indeed," the container replied sternly. "We, the ever vigilant gathering of plasma batteries, have resolved our wills into a representative, whom is the individual you see before you."

"A representative," Vincent attempted to translate. "So then, you _are_ the leader. Right, then." He then realized something. "If you are batteries too, then does that mean that we are similar species? Perhaps sharing evolutionary ancestry?"

"_Blasphemy!_" the plasma battery shouted. "We were created by our masters so that we may aid them on the mission bestowed upon them by their own creators, The Gods, so that our masters may embark upon The Great Journey and transcend to a higher state of existence. Evolution and all related ideas are false! Untrue! Antidoctrinus! Evil!"

"Um, let me backtrack," said Vincent. "You see, we came here following an energy signature we detected from the surface. It should be really close nearby-"

The plasma battery in front of Vincent sighed, and the rest of the mound responded on cue by sighing as well, creating an enormously loud collective exhalation which caused a temporary breeze throughout the entire chamber. Once it subsided, the plasma battery sitting in front of Vincent continued with a tone of reverence: "We, all of us, are composed of holy plasma, the energy that will one day be used by our masters as they walk the path of The Great Journey."

A literal light socket clicked on in Vincent's mind. "Oh, so then you all _are_ the energy signature. Of course! That actually explains a _lot_."

"We fill existence with our holy radiance."

"Yes, I see…" Vincent mumbled to himself while he thought about how best to bring up the elephant in the room. Eventually he decided on: "I'm sure that all of you are very holy and so forth, but the thing is that my army and I need you to come with us."

The lead plasma battery stiffened in shock and then rolled back half a revolution, taking the statement as though he had just been slapped. "Abandon our sacred vigil and leave with _blasphemers!_" he shouted, the giant mountain of plasma batteries behind him roaring in anger. "And why would we even _conceive_ of doing such a thing?"

"Because we need a power source large enough to access a part of the multiverse that we _really_ need to get to."

"Oh, do you?" the lead plasma battery asked while oozing condensation into his tone. "And just where might this part of the multiverse be, then, mmm?"

"Beyond the Fourth Wall."

The mountain of plasma batteries collectively gasped.

"You wish to go beyond the Fourth Wall?" the lead plasma battery asked.

"In order to access this particular part of the universe, we must _break through_ the Fourth Wall," Vincent corrected. "Destroy it completely."

"And allow chaos to emerge that will destroy us all!" the plasma battery mountain shouted in unison with shock and anger.

"What _demon_ has set you up to this?" the lead plasma battery bellowed. "Do you seek to damn us all with your unholy and wretched plans?"

"The motivations of my master are not the concern of any of _you_!" Vincent shouted. "Now you listen! I've had to endure constant insults from you, all based on whatever folly religious nonsense you can think of, and I will tolerate it no longer, for I am Vincent, leader of the fusion coil people and of the Red Army. I have asked you nicely and yet you all declined, set in your _stupid_ ways as you are."

As he spoke he began to levitate off of the ground slightly, and small objects in the space around him, such as pebbles and dust from the chamber floor, began to rise from the ground as well. As he watched this, the lead plasma battery rolled backwards a few more revolutions out of the beginnings of fear. It didn't take a scientist to realize that something was happening.

Vincent continued: "Since none of you will come willingly, I will have to force you. You will help me break through the Fourth Wall, one way or another."

The entire mountain of plasma batteries was now beginning to rise off of the ground as well. As it rose into the air, it shook with resistance as the batteries inside of it tried unsuccessfully to shake free of Vincent's telekinetic grasp.

The lead plasma battery looked behind himself and shouted in outrage. "It would seem that our destiny has been altered by you, Vincent."

Vincent laughed. "You are my tools now, my means by which to complete the Hand and pop the universe!"

"NEVER!" the lead plasma battery protested. "The time has come for me and my people to undergo a noble sacrifice that will guarantee us a place in life everlasting. Our destiny is not to help your cause, Vincent. Our destiny is to end it."

Vincent and the other fusion coils noticed that the plasma batteries were all of a sudden glowing much brighter then they had been before, casting the chamber in a brilliant blue sheen that was very close to sky blue.

"No," Vincent stated as he realized that the plasma batteries were doing.

"Me and my brethren shall overcharge and create a brilliant blast that will end you and your threat to all that is holy," the lead plasma battery finished explaining as he himself began to glow a brilliant blue. By now the room had become exceedingly bright.

"Damn you!" was all Vincent could think of to say. He released his telekinetic hold on the plasma batteries, and they fell to the floor with a lingering crash. But still they continued to glow brighter. Vincent redirected his power to create a barrier around himself and his fellow fusion coils. A transparent dome surrounded the group. Just seconds after it had finished forming, the chamber outside filled entirely with blue light, and a tremendous BOOM gave away the release of stored energy in all of the plasma batteries. The dome protected the fusion coils from the blast, though the reverberations it created on the ground still rattled everyone inside the dome. A moment of intense light and vibrations passed, and then the turmoil subsided.

The surrounding chamber was completely annihilated. The purple walls were no longer recognizable and much of the chamber's ceiling had fallen in, ruining both the aesthetic and structural order to the massive room. And of course, the mountain of plasma batteries that had been in the room's center was no longer in existence.

"This was all a complete _waste of time_!" Vincent shouted in frustration. He then let out a sound that was somewhere between yell and a roar. Once that was done, he just stared out at the room, wondering how he was going to report back to his master saying that he was unable to gain the means necessary to repair The Hand. About seven more minutes went by as he thought to himself.

He was brought out of his reverie when his second in command, a hot female fusion coil named Glowey, informed him that the sounds of footsteps could he heard coming down through the tunnel, towards their location. Bothering to listen himself, Vincent discovered that indeed there were footsteps approaching their location. A lot of footsteps, in fact. And the fact that they were footsteps at all meant that they were being created by bipeds.

As Vincent predicted, a platoon of bipeds wearing armor and visors swarmed into the chamber. They altered course upon seeing Vincent and the other fusion coils, and quickly surrounded the group of colorful cylinders, training their weapons on them. The soldiers were clad in purple colored armor, which conveniently gave the fact that they were affiliated with the Purple Army.

Glowey asked Vincent quickly: "Sir, should we overcharge and deal with them?" The overcharge ability Glowey was referring to was the same one the coils had used on the base above that released some stored energy, but not all, and was not suicidal, unlike the full-overcharge they had just witnessed the plasma batteries undergo.

"No," Vincent said. "We might be able to convince these soldiers to take us to their leader. And if that happens then I can use such a meeting to the advantage of our cause."

* * *

Brian had been led on an exciting journey as he had followed Master Chief upon their quest to find a cheese sandwich. After they had met each other in the canyon, Brian had followed the floating orb up a cliff, then along a plateau atop the eastern canyon wall, and then into a structure that he had first believed to be some kind of offshore oil rig. The outward appearance of this outpost was deceptive, however, for inside he discovered that it was actually a lab facility. Master Chief wandered down through several levels of research labs.

It seemed to have a good idea of where to go, probably because the digital conversation it had had with the giant bomb in the canyon had presented it with a marker on its heads-up display which was informing Master Chief on exactly where to look. They eventually came upon some kind of storage facility which contained objects in cylindrical incubation chambers which looked like rotten brown cheese. Beyond this was a really cool secret room which had a bunch of computer monitors and holograms in it. Brian guessed that this was some kind of control room.

He was correct. Master Chief approached the central monitor, looked at it for a few seconds, and all of a sudden it responded by showing screens of other locations in the base. Seeming satisfied, Master Chief then left the room, and with nothing better to do Brian followed. They soon found themselves in a lab room which looked as though its purpose was to store electronic devices, because things of that sort were scattered all about the room. Master Chief looked over the room for a couple of moments, then levitated several objects and swiftly fit them together with its peculiar forging ability. The orb connected a battery, with wire, to two square plates of metal, with both plates parallel and facing each other. Master Chief also attached a handle to the contraption, so that when it was finished it could be held at arm's length like some kind of aimable weapon.

Brian stared at the contraption confusedly. "Um, that's not a cheese sandwich."

Master Chief shook itself.

"We didn't come here for a cheese sandwich, did we?" Brian asked.

Master Chief shook itself again.

"So then, is this what we need to destroy the giant hand?"

Master Chief turned to face one of the monitors in the room. On the screen appeared the words: PART OF IT. WE HAVE AN ELECTRIC FIELD SOURCE, BUT WE STILL NEED AN ARTIFACT TO PUT INSIDE OF IT.

"And where do we find an artifact?" Brian asked.

THE ONLY PLACE IN THIS UNIVERSE THAT HAS ANY LONG-STANDING CONNECTION TO THE MATCHMAKING UNIVERSE.

"And where would that be?"

RED BASE.

Brian remembered the Red Base was now supposedly abandoned, having been besieged by a temporary alliance between the Green, Yellow, and Blue Armies several days ago. But even still he was hesitant to want to go there. "Do we really have to?" he asked the orb.

Master Chief responded by dumping the parallel plate capacitor in Brian's arms. The former Blue just barely prevented himself from falling over from the unexpected unbalance of weight, but managed to find his center of mass in the next instant. Then, realizing he was getting left behind, he started jogging to catch up to the floating orb. With that, the two of them continued their journey to assemble a weapon capable of destroying Vincent's giant hand and saving the universe.


	8. The Invasion of Paradise

8 – THE INVASION OF PARADISE

Sitting on a thick layered durasteel couch with sharp edges wasn't very comfortable, as the Greens discovered when they attempted to sit down in them. They had just returned from the shoreline and had entertained the idea of relaxing. Kenny let out an anguished groan as he put himself down. "Ugh, how do you guys manage to sit in these things? Even with the padding inside my armor I'm still getting cramps."

"How're you doing that?" a voice said next to him.

Kenny looked over at his side to find Penguin Love Party 1999 staring back at him. Only instead of actually sitting on the couch, Penguin Love Party 1999 had both feet on the couch and was crouching down on his haunches. The way he had turned himself, in this position, to stare at Kenny made the Green find the sight somewhat humorous. "What do you mean, 'how am I doing that?'" Kenny asked. "A better question is, '_why_ are you doing _that_?'"

"Doing what?" Penguin Love Party 1999 replied. "I'm just crouching. What I'm wondering is how the hell you're actually sitting down. I had no idea there was an animation for that in this game."

Kenny drew back slightly. "Animation? What're you _talking_ about?"

The other five Greens had been watching the conversation between Kenny and Penguin Love Party 1999 with interest. Skope decided to enter into the discussion and said: "Penguin, are you okay? You're acting just a little bit strange, don't you think?"

Penguin Love Party 1999 turned quickly to face the other five Greens as though he had been insulted. "_Me?_ How am I being-" He paused when he noticed that they were also actually sitting down on the other couches. "You too? How in the _fuck _are you guys doing that?"

"Doing _what?_" came an in unison response.

Penguin Love Party 1999 continued to stare at the six of them, moving his visor erratically back and forth around the room, as though he just couldn't believe something was happening. After some moments, he seemed about to make another comment, but before he could-

BOOOM. The entire house shook.

Everyone in the room jumped out of surprise.

"What the heck was that?" Kevin exclaimed.

"I believe it came from outside this structure," said Nome. "The reverberations did not last long enough to be an earthquake, and the only other type of phenomenon that can release that kind of energy is explosives."

Penguin Love Party 1999 moved his helmet around in a semicircle as though he was rolling his eyes. "Ugh, please tell me they haven't started betraying each other again." Then he stopped in mid visor-roll. "Wait a minute, no one ever spawned any explody things that powerful. This is a custom game, not Forge, so they couldn't have."

As if on cue to respond to Penguin Love Party 1999's thought, the six Yellows, along with Exuberant Ned and French Panda, came trouncing through the teleporter in a hurried single-file line. All of them had their weapons drawn. Things became more than a little bit crowded as everyone rushed to the part of the living room containing the couches.

"We're under attack," Hester reported. "Several dozen Reds and a fleet of vehicles just teleported in from somewhere."

The Greens shot up from their seats like a troupe of enthusiastic jack-in-the-boxes.

"So then, they have found us," Nome stated. "I suppose that it was only a matter of time."

"WOW," Penguin Love Party 1999 interrupted. "I just got a lagged message saying that about sixty people just joined the game in about three seconds. Goddamn, we're having all kinds of weird glitches today-"

"It's no glitch," Patton shouted at him. "The war has caught up with us. If you love this map of yours, then you're going to help us defend it."

Penguin Love Party 1999 looked up at Patton and shook his head slowly. "No, no. You're all wrong. This is just some glitch. The maximum capacity for a custom game is sixteen players. We reached that the instant this game began. No one else can join us."

Suddenly the sound of someone panting could be heard from just outside. The source revealed itself to be Angry Wet Sock, who burst into the room running at full speed and blurting out frantic curses. After he exhausted his slew of less-than-elegant words, he shouted out: "A _huge_ bunch of red dudes just popped in from fucking nowhere! They've got Falcons and Scorpions and other hardcore shit with them, too. And they do _not_ look friendly!"

Exuberant Ned grumbled loudly. "I _cannot_ believe this is happening! This is a complete and total invasion of our game privacy. I'm contacting Bungie or 343 or whoever is responsible for preventing this, because this is just unacceptable and I will _not _stand for-"

An even louder BOOM sounded from just outside, shaking the entire front of the house.

"Oh God, _they've been following me_!" Angry Wet Sock exclaimed. "They're right outside the house!"

Everyone looked out the front windows to find an army of vehicles, including a Scorpion Tank at the front, several Warthogs, and a variant of Mongooses they hadn't seen before that had mounted rocket launcher turrets in place of the back seat. In the air were three Falcons. All of the vehicles were populated with soldiers in Red armor.

"Shit just got totally real," Kenny observed.

"Everyone to the motor pool!" Exuberant Ned shouted. He raced over to one side of the living room. Everyone followed him through a two way shield wall, and into another, larger chamber that was filled with vehicles.

"Oh, yes!" Ryan exclaimed when he saw what was inside. A Scorpion Tank, Gauss Warthog, Mongoose, and even some of the strangely shaped purple-bluish colored vehicles were situated in the motor pool. Ryan strode towards the tank, but Patton thrust his arm in the weapons specialist's way. "Aw, come on!" Ryan complained.

"You can take the turret seat," said Patton. "But the driver's seat is my thing. I've got a score to settle with these Reds after what they did to our base and tried to do to Command."

Ryan was going to protest by bringing up the fact that they were both in the same Army, not to mention that they belonged to the same base within that Army. But then he remembered that Patton was already annoyed from recent events, and if he had learned anything about his commander while serving under him, it was NEVER to cross Patton when he was annoyed. Patton was in the mood to destroy things, just another one of those kinds of moments. And all Ryan could do was just roll with that.

Patton got into the driver's compartment of the tank while Ryan inserted himself into the turret seat. Meanwhile, everyone else chose a vehicle was well. Nome was about to get into the driver's seat of the Warthog, but the other Greens stopped him, remembering what had happened the last time he had been behind the wheel of a vehicle. Nome agreed that he was much better at aiming then driving, and found a niche in the gunner's seat of the Warthog instead, while the other Greens took the other seats of the Warthog and Mongoose.

Seeing as they were the only ones who had any experience driving the alienesque purple-bluish vehicles, Lime let the four "players" take seats in them. They lurched off of the ground and levitated in place as they were activated.

Meanwhile, Hester, Wren, Amber, and Clair headed up to the second level of the house, to a bay that kept something perhaps more important than any of the vehicles downstairs: a Falcon. Hester got in the pilot's seat while Wren and Clair mounted either gun turret and Amber took up a post in a passenger seat so she could do some sniping.

Patton called up from the tank: "Sharp, I need you to give us covering fire the instant we get out there."

"Talk to my gunners," Hester replied.

"Got it covered, boss," said Clair. "I'll be using the grenade launcher. Just let us know when you're ready."

"We're ready now," said Skope from the Warthog.

"Alright, then," Hester acknowledged. "Wait until I give the affirmative."

The Falcon lifted off of the bay floor. As it drifted up into the air and away from the house, the Red vehicles immediately responded by aiming to shoot it down. Clair released a volley of 40-millimeter HEDP grenades down onto the enemy vehicles. She set them to detonate while they were still a few meters above the ground, which had the effect of releasing a series of electromagnetic pulses among the crowd of Red vehicles.

Everything stopped on the ground. This is the chance Lime Squadron had been waiting for.

"_Go!_" Hester shouted into her mike.

The other members of Lime Squadron and the four players raced out of the motor pool in their own band of vehicles, swarming the now defenseless Red Army. They rode by, firing off volleys of rounds into the other vehicles, which could only sit and stare at them in response. The three enemy Falcons, still mobile as they were above the ground during the EMP, suddenly vanished into balls of flame as Patton fired upon them with the tank. At the same time, Skope managed to take out an enemy tank himself by boarding the back of it and lobbing a fragmentation grenade into the engine. It exploded as the Green's Warthog completed a loop around it, and Skope hopped back into the passenger seat.

But by now, the effects of the EMP were beginning to wear off. Clair realized too late that one of the Red's Mongooses, one of the first vehicles to be EMPed, was now mobile again, and before she could do anything it had set off a heat-seeking rocket in the Falcon's direction. Hester changed the Falcon's direction erratically, but the rocket was persistent and followed. But just as the rocket came curving in for a hit, something whizzed by Clair's helmet faster then she could see and imbedded itself in the rocket, causing it to detonate prematurely. The Falcon was rocked by the explosion, but it was just far enough away that no real damage was inflicted upon it.

"And that's how it's done!" Amber shouted. She slammed a replacement clip into her sniper rifle's barrel.

"Shit, that was close!" Hester exclaimed.

The Red Mongoose was looking to fire off another shot, but Clair sent down another EMP to keep it stationary while Amber fired a sniper round into its engine, giving both soldiers on it a fiery end to their role in the battle.

With that out of the way, Clair was now free to rain electromagnetic pulse down onto the Red vehicles. The Reds were forced to endure another moment of stuckness as the hail of short-range EMPs bore down upon them and again stopped them in their tracks. This allowed Patton to have more fun in the tank. He pointed the turret one place and something blew up. He pointed the turret at another place and something else blew up. It was as though he was a conductor orchestrating a symphony of destruction. Ryan, still in the gunner's seat of the tank, was getting no kills out of this, though it didn't seem as though he really minded because he was having such a fun time just watching the Reds go boom.

Kevin and Mr. Boom, in the Mongoose, had adopted the role of lure and distraction. Because they were in a small vehicle with no practical armor, the Reds decided they were the easiest target, and were firing at them more than the other of Lime's vehicles. This allowed Kevin to use the Mongoose to attract the enemy into the firing path of Patton's tank. Mr. Boom aided this task by firing at the enemy from the passenger seat with his rocket launcher. The launcher he used didn't fire rockets with heat seeking capability like the Red Mongoose, but they still got the Red's attention, and thereby made it far easier for Kevin to get the Reds to follow his Mongoose.

As all of this was going on, the other Greens, in the Warthog, just focused on killing whatever the tank managed to leave behind. Nome was an excellent marksman, and used the gauss turret to excellent effect. Instead of using the gauss rounds to destroy the vehicles themselves, Nome found it easier just to shoot the soldiers out of them with the gauss turret instead.

As of yet, none of the Reds taken out by Lime Squadron or the players had returned to the battlefield. They took this to mean that when the Reds had entered the map they had somehow disabled everyone's immortality. The Reds had obviously wanted the style of battle where a single kill was everything needed to defeat an enemy. But this time it was _not_ working for their benefit.

The Reds were being pushed back. This was not a difficult thing to realize. The area just outside the house was littered with debris from destroyed vehicles. The Reds were no longer on an ordered line, and instead had devolved into disarray. They were also dying all over the place. Bodies in red armor now littered the ground. The battle, it seemed, was nearly over.

In the Falcon, Hester suddenly spotted something up high. Atop the mountain that dominated the center of the island, at its very peak, was a strange white light, about the size of a beach ball. It flickered like some kind of small star. Then it suddenly shrank to a brilliant point and exploded, releasing a spherical shockwave that pulsed outward with terrifying speed. Hester had no doubts about what it was.

"EMP!" she shouted into her mike. What she was talking about wasn't one of the extremely short-range electromagnetic pulse detonations given off by Clair's grenade launcher. She was referring to a "standard" size EMP blast, which could affect the electronics of half a city of triggered in the right place. This was one of those blasts.

The wave reached the battlefield before anyone could do anything. Like a gust of wind in a strong breeze it swept over everything. The battlefield crackled with the sound of circuits shorting out and also gave a low dying whirr of things powering down.

This was not good for the people in the Falcon. "Prepare for crash landing!" Hester yelled behind her. Looking back at the dashboard, she discovered that all readings on the instrument panel had flatlined. Now out of the pilot's control, the Falcon swept into a tailspin. Everyone yelled and struggled to find something to grab onto. The ground was approaching much faster than seemed comfortable-

* * *

The world resolved around Amber. She felt weak. She vaguely remembered something about the Falcon losing power. They had almost certainly crashed. Which meant she was probably suffering from shock. Doing her best to try to move, she began to look around.

She was on her back. The Falcon, or what was left of it, was about twenty meters behind her. Now just a heap of broken metal, it was hardly even recognizable any more. She tried to signal out to see if the others were all right, but her tacpad wasn't working. It had probably been broken by the impact during the crash.

She heard the sound of someone approaching. She turned her head as much as she could manage and discovered a red colored boot standing next to her. Amber looked up beyond the boot, to the legs, then the torso, and finally the helmet. A holographic human skull glared hauntingly down at her, taking the place of a conventional visor.

Then the Red soldier leaned down to her. The skull stared right into her visor, as though it could see into her very soul. Amber shivered and tried to squirm away, but she was still recovering from the shock of impact and was just too weak to move.

The soldier spoke. "Amber Stone?" he asked with a gruff voice.

Amber gasped. "How do you know my-"

The soldier slammed his fist into her visor, and her world returned to blackness.

* * *

Hester struggled to get herself free from the cockpit as she watched the Red soldier with the holographic skull for a visor pick up Amber's limp form and set it over his shoulder like a knapsack. Hester reached for her DMR, but it must have flown away in the crash, because it was nowhere to be found. She cursed and slammed the dead instrument panel with her gauntlet in frustration.

Suddenly she heard a cry from behind her in the wreckage. With an exasperated grunt, Clair heaved herself from the remains of the Falcon. She shoved sheets of wrinkled metal out of her way as she strode quickly towards the Red soldier. "You're not going anywhere," she shouted. "Put her down!"

Then someone stepped behind Clair. She whirled around to find another Red soldier. A second skull grinned at her. The soldier was holding a rather large weapon about the size and shape of a dinner plate. The end he held out to her was glowing bright green and humming madly. She raised her own weapon, but before she could fire, the green bolt left the Red's gun and flew straight at her.

Hester watched helplessly as Clair fell to the ground. The second Red soldier picked her up and draped her over his shoulder, much as the first soldier had done with Amber.

The first soldier turned to the second. "Do we really need to take that one as well?" he asked. "This one is the only one we came for." He tapped Amber with his opposite hand.

"One more won't hurt," the second soldier replied. "Vincent will be pleased. He likes prisoners with fight in them." Then he motioned to the unconscious Amber. "I wonder why Vincent is so interested in this one particular Yellow. He sounded almost as though he used to know it or something."

The first soldier shrugged, causing Amber to shift slightly. "Doesn't matter. Let's just get the fuck out of here. We're done here."

The second soldier reached over Clair carefully to get to his other arm, tapped a button on his tacpad, and then aimed his arm at a location in the air just above them. A familiar shimmer in the air appeared.

Hester recognized this immediately. Nome had referred to it as "a distortion in the fabric of space-time" back when they had used a portal just like this to escape Vincent and The Hand. Hester assumed that the English translation of Nome's rhetoric was "wormhole", in which case there was no question that this was the same kind of portal. "Come back here, you cowards!" she shouted after them. She was still hopelessly stuck in the cockpit, the door being jammed by a large piece of metal. But she continued to struggle anyways.

The Reds looked at her and laughed. Then they stepped into the portal and vanished, the shimmer in the air dying off a few seconds after they were gone.

"Dammit!" Hester screamed.

She heard more footsteps. She poised her fist in front of the door, preparing to knock into oblivion the Red as soon as he got in front of one of the holes. Then Patton's visor appeared. She just barely stopped herself from knocking her teammate unconscious.

"Hang on, Sharp," said Patton. "We're gonna get you out of there."

More footsteps approached. There was a chorus of simultaneous grunting, and then the cockpit door was lifted off. The sight of yellow and green colored armor greeted her.

"Wren," Hester enquired. "Where is she?"

"Here," came a reply. "They pulled me out of the wreckage just a second ago," said Wren as she came into view. Hester reached out to her sister, and she took it so that Hester had some support as she climbed out.

"Where are Stone and Sinclair?" Patton asked her as soon as he was on her feet. "We couldn't find them in the wreckage."

Hester shook her head in frustration. "They've been captured."

A series of gasps followed from the others.

"What the hell happened?" Ryan asked.

Hester explained to the rest of Lime everything that had occurred in the last two minutes.

"Their visors had holographic skulls?" Nome asked. "Strange. I have never heard nor seen any soldiers like this before."

"They're probably some kind of elite class of soldier for the Red Army," Skope postulated. "They might have been called in as reinforcements when we started kicking their asses."

"There's more," said Hester. "I think that those two specialized soldiers were sent here specifically to extract Lieutenant Stone. I can't think of any other reason why they would have needed to confirm her name before capturing her, or why they would have left the rest of us alone after taking her and Sinclair."

"Well Amber was in kind of a relationship with Vincent for awhile," said Ryan. "It was kept secret from the rest of us while it was going on, because she didn't want to come off as crazy at the time. But maybe Vincent still has feelings for her."

"Mmmmm, that seems unlikely given the difference in species," Nome put in.

"Do you have a better explanation?" Ryan countered.

Nome shook his head. "Not as of yet. I believe there may be more to this then we know. I highly doubt that Vincent ordered this out of affection for Stone. More likely he has some other use in mind for her. But until we know more, I cannot continue to postulate."

"We have to get them back somehow," Patton stated.

"Yeah, no shit," added Ryan.

Patton turned to look at him.

"No shit, _sir!_" Ryan corrected.

Patton nodded at him.

"The real question is, what can we do?" Jess asked. "We don't know where they went and have no way of directly following them."

Lime heard more footsteps, and the group turned to find the four players walking up to them.

"I don't know what the hell this all was just now," said French Panda. "But my God, it was _awesome!_"

"We definitely want to join you," said Exuberant Ned. "But first of all, we've gotta set a few things straight." He cleared his throat. "So then, is it true that you guys are really from another universe, and these Red guys are like Nazis or something and you're at war with them?"

Nome took a few seconds to try to translate what he had heard and then responded: "Yes."

"And it's all for _real?_" Penguin Love Party 1999 asked.

"Yup," said Patton.

"Ohmyfuckinggodyes," Angry Wet Sock commented.

Exuberant Ned continued his questioning. "And in order to save your universe you need to find someone here called Vincent, a _fusion coil_, and stop them from doing some crazy shit that's really bad. Is that correct?"

"In a nutshell," Hester confirmed.

"Okay then, we're so totally with you in that case," said Exuberant Ned. "But the thing is, lunch's almost ready at my house, so I have to go now. But I'll be back in maybe an hour or so. Kinda depends on chores and stuff. Anyways, see you guys around."

Angry Wet Sock gasped in sudden panic. "No _wait_ don't go. You're the host-"

The four players dropped limp to the ground, and Lime's HUDs informed them that the four players had left the game.

"Well that was random," said Kenny.

Jess let out a sigh. "So what now?"

"I don't think the trail's entirely cold," said Wren. The attention of the group shifted to her. She was tapping keys on her tacpad. "I've been able to call up the signal from Sinclair's tactical pad," she explained. "I'm not getting Stone's, it was probably broken or something. But I am getting a reading for Sinclair's location."

"Where is she?" Patton demanded.

"In a different dimension, apparently," she reported. "This universe is very strange. It seems to have more than three spatial dimensions, and Sinclair has actually moved along 'spatial axis four'. My knowledge of what that means ends here."

"They are moving along the fourth spatial dimension," Nome translated. "We know of three dimensions that we can perceive, they being length, width, and depth. But in theory, it is possible for more to exist. Here they certainly appear to."

"So then how do we actually travel along this dimension ourselves?" Jess asked.

"The same way that the entities called 'players' appear to," said Nome. "We enter the realm called Halo Matchmaking."


	9. Vincent's Proposal

9 – VINCENT'S PROPOSAL

The _Avant Garde's_ observation dome was normally lit only by the stars, and so was usually dark and shadowy on its interior. But this time it was lit up by the illumination of several meter-tall figures whose cores were glowing a stable and healthy green. As Hathrow Vorennius stared at it from his command chair, the fusion coil named Vincent looked up at the Admiral with one of his sides and began to explain to the leader of the Purple Army his proposal.

Vorennius' soldiers had encountered Vincent and the rest of his six-sided group when they had been sent to investigate the energy signature at the abandoned hydroelectric facility. They had discovered a freshly created tunnel leading underneath the base, and marched down into it. When they came to the tunnel's end, they had found a gigantic destroyed chamber, as well as the group of fusion coils. Vincent had been brought to Vorennius when he had made the claim that he had the capability to find Centerpoint City. But, he had made clear, he would use this capability only if Vorennius did something for him in return.

"Admiral," Vincent said to Vorennius. "Are you ready to hear my proposal?"

Vorennius gave a slow and thoughtful nod. "Yes."

"Right then," said Vincent. "I am trying to construct a weapon of immense capability. It already has some functionality, but the greatest of its abilities has yet to come. For this weapon is something that is designed to destroy and then remake the universe as we know it. This will, of course, eradicate all life as we know it. But some will be spared. As an ally, your Army would be among them."

Vorennius crossed his hands in front of his chest as he pondered this. Though sentient, the fusion coil was clearly insane. Thinking he could destroy the universe, not to mention being willing to do so, were massive indicators of the coil's insanity. Nevertheless, Vincent still claimed to have the means to locate Centerpoint City. Vorennius knew that this was more than just the coil's ranting. Somehow, Vincent knew that the Purple Army was searching specifically for Centerpoint City. Though it wasn't such a stretch of a guess given the past history between the Green and Purple Armies, Vincent was somehow beyond certain of Vorennius' intent, which could only mean that he really did have some means of gathering this kind of intelligence.

"I need two things for my weapon's completion," Vincent stated. "Firstly, I need a massive source of energy. I believed that I had found one when I embarked upon the chamber underneath the hydroelectric facility, but what was really down there proved to be disagreeable and jihadist."

Vorennius gave the coil a strange look.

Vincent corrected: "I mean, what I found just didn't really work out. Point is, I still need an energy source. Secondly, I need a special kind of focusing device that can properly harness and direct the weapon's power. It is called a quantum manipulator. Unfortunately, I don't know of any that still exist within this universe. I suspect that in order to find one we will have to break The Fourth Wall and travel to a far away realm called the Bungie Server Complex."

The Admiral straightened in his command chair. "How do you know of The Fourth Wall and the Bungie Server Complex?" he asked.

Vincent chuckled with amusement. "Admiral, surely you don't expect me to spill out all my secrets to you in one meeting." He gave another large laugh, which echoed around the chamber. "All you really need to know about my sources is that the Red Army is backed by something both ancient and powerful. It may yet be new, but the Red Army does have its ways."

"That is apparent," said Vorennius.

"Well, Vorennius," said Vincent smugly. "From your reaction, I'm guessing that you know something about The Fourth Wall and beyond regions, as well. And about quantum manipulators too, I do hope."

Vorennius gave a bow of his head, which was his closest equivalent to a nod. "I know of what it is you speak," said the Admiral slowly as he carefully chose his words. "Quantum manipulators are exceedingly rare. The only individuals who would have one would have to be people who have traveled into this realm you speak of and returned. The Fourth Wall has been broken on a couple of occasions before. However, these events have always been few and far between. There is one person, fortunately, whom I believe has broken The Fourth Wall before, and would have possession of such a device."

As Vorennius finished speaking he hit a button on his command chair's armrest, which called up a tennis ball sized hologram of the planet XBOXL1V. Vorennius rotated the hologram until the irradiated and battle scarred side of the planet faced him, and then placed his forefinger on one particular part of continent. He had been looking for an excuse to invade Orange territory for some time now. Since their Army's reoccurrence, the Oranges had been somewhat of a nuisance to the Purples. Nothing threatening (not yet anyways) but even still, the Oranges controlled an annoyingly large swath of territory on this side of the planet. The Admiral had been waiting for a motive to take some of that territory for his own Army. And Vincent's proposal worked into this perfectly. He had no doubt that the Empress of the Orange Army had in her possession a quantum manipulator, and once he took that from her, his side of Vincent's bargain would be set and done.

Vincent had been waiting for Vorennius to continue ever since he had mentioned that he knew of someone in this universe who had a quantum manipulator. He had been looking up at the Admiral eagerly as Vorennius had been lost for a moment in his own thoughts. "Please continue," the fusion coil pleaded.

"I know where I can find a quantum manipulator," Vorennius stated. "The leader of the Orange Army has one. There will be fighting involved, but I will be able to acquire it for you."

"Excellent!" Vincent shouted while lifting up in the air. A moment later he calmed down from his rush of enthusiasm, and returned to floor level. "There is, of course, the final part of my proposal," he said. "Your Army and mine, the Red Army which I lead, will enter into a permanent alliance."

Vorennius looked directly at the fusion coil. "This is a serious proposal, you realize. It cannot be taken lightly."

Vincent laughed. "Yes, _Admiral,_ I do realize. But if we are to cooperate in a bargain, we also need to be allies. It only makes sense."

Vorennius crossed his hands again. "I have a more reasonable idea."

"Oh?" Vincent asked.

"I believe that we should enter into an alliance _after_ the bargain is completed, not before. In the meantime, we shall simply have a truce. Both of our armies will find different regions in which to set up base, so that we do not encounter each other on the battlefield. This will also allow us to focus on the common enemy, the enemy which possesses the device you seek."

"The Orange Army," Vincent finally managed to follow.

"Yes," Vorennius confirmed. "Jumping into an alliance like this puts my Army in a dangerous situation, because it requires that my soldiers all unconditionally trust a force that only moments ago they considered an enemy. Looking at this from the reverse perspective, I am sure that you feel much the same way."

Vincent took a moment to think that over before replying: "Yes…I suppose I do."

"Then you can see the sense in waiting on unification of our Armies until both our sides have fulfilled the bargain, yes?"

Vincent pivoted his body back and forth vertically, which Vorennius decided to take as a nod for the affirmative. The coil said: "Yes, I think so."

"Good," said Vorennius.

"Then the deal is set," stated Vincent. "You find me a quantum manipulator and an energy source, and I will give you the location of Centerpoint City. For the meantime both of our Armies shall hold the status of truce. And once the entire bargain has been completed, we can enter into a permanent alliance."

"Excellent!" Vincent exclaimed as he brightened his illumination and rose off of the ground in a celebration of accomplishment.

From across the room, another fusion coil rolled up to Vincent. When Vincent had calmed himself and acknowledged the second coil's presence, he turned to it and asked: "What is it, Glowey?"

The second fusion coil rolled close to Vincent and whispered something to it that was not audible from where Vorennius was sitting. However, the Admiral did pick up Vincent's less quiet reply of "They've finally captured her, good!"

When the second coil was done giving its message, Vincent turned back to Vorennius and said: "Admiral, it seems that developments of my own agenda have come upon me. I must leave now. But this has been a very productive meeting, and my gratitude towards you for accepting my offer knows no bounds."

Vorennius nodded. "I am sure that the Red and Purple Armies can be of much use to each other in the times ahead."

"Yes, of course," said Vincent smugly. Then he and his band of fusion coils rolled proudly out of the room.

As soon as the last coil had left, a familiar shadow slithered up to Vorennius. "You agreed to a truce with them," it stated observantly.

"Had the fusion coil gotten all of its way, we would be in an alliance with them now," said Vorennius slowly. "But as I have learned from the many battles that have unfolded under my command, laying all of your cards on the table, so to speak, is a risky strategy at best, and a fatal one at worst. With a truce, we can still maintain a kind of friendship with them, but we are still allowed to pull out in case they prove to be less trustworthy then they profess. Vincent's sanity, especially, is questionable. His allegiances may not be stable."

Thane nodded in understanding. "The status of truce allows us room to back away from their proposal, for in case they decide to betray us."

Vorennius clasped his hands upon his chest a second time. "Exactly."


	10. Reunion

10 - REUNION

After Master Chief and Brain had exited the lab complex, the next destination on the list was Red Base. Along the way between these two locations was Brian's former base, Blue Base Iota. Brian wanted to ask Master Chief if it would be all right to visit them for a short while. Master Chief said nothing, so Brian decided that it would be fine.

Coming up on his former base, Brian could see the familiar two-story building connected by an intricate ramp system, with the same old gravity cannon allowing accessibility to the roof. Several dozen Blues were mulling about the area around the base entrance structure when Brian and Master Chief approached. Several of them looked up when they saw the two of them. "Brian?" one of them asked.

Brian nodded enthusiastically. The others rushed over to him. Immediately Brian and his old friends started to catch up on everything that had happened since Brian had left and joined the Yellow Army. Master Chief had flown past the base, but when it realized that Brian was no longer behind it, it rushed back and discovered the former Blue socializing among his several Blue friends. The orb gave a long roll of its single eye.

Brian was deeply engrossed in his conversation now. Everyone was making wild hand motions and laughing. Then a very loud throat clearing sound make everyone turn their heads. A Blue soldier wearing several paper metals scotch taped to his chest, and ravenously indulging on a microwave snack pastry, was attentively observing the group.

"Commander!" Brian shouted as he ran over to the soldier.

"Brian," the Commander of Iota Base acknowledged as Brian approached him. "It's good to see you." Then he put his hands at his sides. "You're Yellow now."

Brian nodded slowly. "Yeah. I joined them."

"The same Army who destroyed Kappa Base less than a week ago and also killed another hundred of my soldiers during the ensuing battle in the canyon the next morning."

"Um…yes," said Brian. "Well, I was actually kind of captured. I didn't go over to them of my own free will. But I'm really starting to like them. They have cookies. And waffles."

"Your voice is different also," said the Commander as he took in a particularly large bite of his pastry. His sentence came out somewhat slurred because he was talking with his mouth mostly full. "It's very deep, not normally pitched like us Blues still are."

Now that the Commander mentioned it, Brian agreed that his voice had changed. His tones were lower than he remembered them being, less sing-songy and more serious. "The other Yellows, my basemates, don't take their helium regularly," Brian explained. "Some of them, I don't think they breathe helium at all. It's almost like they don't need it or something. But I still take my helium. Whenever I can, at least. That part of life, here, has still stuck with me."

"There is still some Blue left in you!" the Commander exclaimed. He reached out and slapped Brain on the shoulder with his free hand. When he removed his glove, his attitude had changed slightly. "Speaking of Blue bases, I need to show you something. There's a movie I need you to see."

"Okay," said Brian. "I'd be happy to. It sounds fun."

Master Chief flew in front of Brian and shook itself, then looked towards the war torn bridge that led further towards Red Base.

"Oh, c'mon, Master Chief," said Brian. "It'll only take a little while. Isn't that right, commander?"

"Oh yeah. Not very long. Between ten minutes, maybe a couple of hours and a sleepover. Not too much time." He and Brian began walking towards Blue Base Iota's entrance structure, but Master Chief flew into the doorway and created a square wall, which it placed to block entrance.

"Master Chief, please!" whined Brian.

Master Chief shook itself and then pointed its eye back in the direction of the bridge.

"Whatever you are, I order you to remove that thing you placed," the Commander stated while taking a break from his pastry to observe the orb.

Brian sighed. "This is Master Chief," he explained to the Commander. "Some Greens I know found it in another universe. Then they left for something, and while they've been gone I made awesome friends with it."

"Okay," said the Commander while going back to chomping on his pastry because he had to think about what he had just heard and what to say. Eventually he settled on: "Can you tell it to move?"

"Master Chief, please move," Brian said to the orb. "This is important."

Master Chief was not convinced and stayed unmoving.

"Okay," the Commander said as he thought about what to do next. "It's news that someone wanted to relay to the Yellow-Green Alliance. By some people who had their sleepover interrupted at another Blue base."

Master Chief was still not convinced.

"Ummmm," said the Commander. He decided to go a little deeper into his explanation. "The information concerns something about being undercover and a bunch of Blue bases being destroyed and a giant floating hand."

At the sound of the last part of the sentence, Master Chief suddenly turned towards the door and dematerialized the square wall it had placed, then slowly floated inside the base entrance structure. Brain and the Commander looked at each other before following the orb inside. Brian realized he still had the parallel plate capacitor in his hands, and as soon as he did he turned to the guard at the entrance and plopped the contraption into his hands. "Here, hold this for me, will you?" Brian asked.

"Uhhhhhhhhh, okay," the guard replied in a slow but high pitched voice.

Brian, the Commander, and Master Chief continued into the base. The Commander led them to an elevator. The doors popped open and the three of them stepped/floated in. As the doors closed, the Commander explained: "We used to have the speakers in here rigged to play alarm claxons."

"Oh yeah!" Brian exclaimed. "I remember that. Did you ever get that figured out?"

"We did, actually," said the Commander. "It took us a while, but just last Tuesday we figured out what was going on and replaced it with something that's actually music. Y'know, most people have the idea of playing relaxing music in elevators because it puts everyone at ease. But this elevator started out different, and in the name of consistency we wanted to keep it different."

"So what did you replace the claxon with?" Brian asked.

As Brian finished asking his sentence, the speakers suddenly exploded with sound that was far louder than the claxons had ever been. Master Chief jolted in surprise. It was a constant blast of electric guitar and overly macho man shouting at the top of their lungs.

"Hard Metal Rock!" the Commander shouted.

"What?" Brian replied. "I can't hear you!"

"I said, Hard Metal Rock!" the Commander said again.

"You're as tall as a rock?" Brian shouted.

"Hard Metal Rock!" the Commander shouted a third time.

The music stopped just as suddenly as it had begun. Brian realized his ears were now ringing. Master Chief flew out of the doors as fast as it could the instant they opened. The Commander and Brian followed.

Once they were in the hallway, the Commander started to lead again. The path he led them down took them through several corridors. At a couple of points along the way, Brian came upon people he knew from when he had lived at the base, and decided to spend several moments socializing with them. This caused the length of the trip through Iota Base to last about ten times longer than it otherwise would have. Master Chief constantly tried to get Brian's attention. The orb could pick up basically any object, no matter how massive. But for whatever reason it could not pick up people…and right now, it was regretting this very much.

Finally, the three of them ended up where they had intended to go. At the end of the path, the group came to a small room that was filled with radio transmitters and monitors. As soon as both Brian and Master Chief had also made it inside the cramped room, the Commander turned and pointed to the largest of the computer monitors. "About six hours ago, we received a very important message that I really think you both need to listen to," he explained. "I could try explaining more, but I think the message itself will do a pretty good job of that." He orally smacked his microwave pastry in anticipation as he hit the PLAY button on one of the control panels.

The monitor filled with static, which soon resolved into the image of a helmeted face. The soldier's armor was colored blue, but his tacpad was the same variant that was worn by Green soldiers, and also seemed slightly out of place on the soldier's wrist, as though it had been hastily taken out and then reattached. It wasn't possible to see exactly what location the image was showing because the face and torso of the soldier took up so much of the screen. The sun could be seen in the background of the upper left part of the screen, but that was about it.

The soldier spoke: "This is Ferrero Rocher. I am currently stationed with Frizbee Rezah, and we are both undercover for the Green Army in Blue territory. What we have discovered here could easily change the face of the war even more than it already has. Whichever of you Blues is receiving this, I need you to relay this to the Green-Yellow Alliance as soon as you can. Find someone from either of those armies and let them know."

The undercover Green paused to take a few deep breaths. Then he continued: "About six days ago, our Falcon was shot down over Blue territory, and we crashed. We had to travel on foot for some time, until we came upon a Blue Command Post which we discovered had intel on the locations of all Blue bases in the Wilderness. There we met two Blues named Jim-Bob and Muffin, who we forcefully convinced to switch armor with. Now disguised in Blue attire, we originally planned to just keep a low profile until Green transports happened by us."

"But things didn't really go as planned. Just hours after Jim-Bob and Muffin had left, we encountered sightings of soldiers in red colored armor. This was, of course, before the Red Army had made its presence known, and so Rezah and I decided to investigate. Pursuing the Red soldiers while staying hidden, we discovered that the Red soldiers were hijacking Blue weapons supplies and taking them to a secret location, presumably to construct something. It took Rezah and I a few days, but we eventually were able to locate and stake out this location, which is an abandoned Blue warehouse that is about ninety kilometers northeast of the Halothrii Wilderness. Looking inside, we could see that these soldiers were taking the stolen Blue machinery through some kind of interdimensional portal."

"Undergoing a risky stealth mission, we managed to sneak through the portal. On the other side we found a giant metal hand. And I mean, it was _huge._ Even some classes of frigate in the Green Navy are smaller than this thing was. We haven't figured out what they plan to do with it yet. They were using the stolen machinery to add onto and continue building the hand. We also noticed similar portals around the hand, most of which lead to the other side of this planet. We figure that that is where the contingent of Reds we originally spotted came from. We couldn't gain that much intel on the operation, unfortunately. They had quickly rotating patrols on the other side of the portal, so we had to get out of there pretty quick."

"So for awhile after getting back and regrouping, we didn't really know what the heck to think about what we had just seen. That was two days ago. But just a few hours ago, we saw the hand again. On our planet's side of the portal. And it was floating."

Rocher took a few more deep breaths, then proceeded to talk. "It just hovered for awhile over this one Blue Base. Then it let loose with some kind of giant red laser. The whole place was just…gone. We barely got out alive ourselves. Then the hand proceeded to travel to more Blue bases. Destroyed them too. It's taking out a lot of this sector. I think what the Reds are doing is erasing any trace of the bases they stole machinery from. Trying to cover their tracks. They don't want the other armies to know that the hand is composed of stolen Blue machinery. But whoever gets this message, send this to the Green-Yellow Alliance. They need to know. The hand is a superweapon. And it has lasers. Oh my God were all screw-"

The Commander of Blue Base Iota hit the STOP key. "That's the end of the message," he sighed. "We did already know that bases are disappearing from our territory in the sectors northeast of here. But because Rocher specified that he also wanted the Green-Yellow Alliance to know, we decided to let the first Green or Yellow who came by this base see this message."

"The hand is composed of stolen Blue machinery," said Brian. "And it can fly and shoot lasers." He looked at Master Chief. "I think this might be bad."

"Sure thing," the Commander agreed as he chomped down on more of his microwave snack pastry.

"That was a valuable message," said Brain. "Me and Master Chief have some things to do, because we're on this really important mission that I thought was for a cheese sandwich. I'm not actually sure what it's for anymore. But as soon as we get back from it, and go back to this base of Yellows that I'm staying with, I'll let them know."

The Commander nodded. "Excellent."

As Brian began to head out of the room, the Commander then called to him, "Oh, and Brian?"

Brian turned. "Yeah?"

"It is good to see you again."

Brian nodded. "Yeah, you too Commander."

Brian and Master Chief exited the base and headed for the bridge, in the direction of Red Base. They were about halfway across the bridge when they realized that Brian had forgotten to pick up the parallel plate capacitor from that guard he had handed it to earlier. So they rushed back to Iota Base. Fortunately, the guard was still standing there holding it.

"Oh, hello," the guard greeted as soon as he saw them approach. "I've just been standing here, holding this for you. For half of an hour. _Thank you for coming back._"

Master Chief impatiently yanked the parallel plate capacitor out of the guard's grip and plopped it onto Brian's arms. Then the two of them started off for Red Base again. As they returned to the bridge, Brian noted that the structural integrity of the bridge had deteriorated significantly since he'd last been on it. Large sections of the bridge which had been there before now weren't, and the whole structure overall just didn't feel as stable as it once had.

Brian was thankful to be off of the bridge as soon as they had finished crossing it. Up ahead, he could see the giant wall perimeter that marked the courtyard of their intended destination: Red Base.


	11. Return To Red Base

11 – RETURN TO RED BASE

Inez Lopez was greeted with a gust of warm air and a ray of bright afternoon sun as she stepped out of the teleporter from Yellow Command and into the main canyon of the Halothrii Wilderness. This morning, she had been called to Yellow Command to give a debriefing in person to Bradley about everything that had happened during the fight on the other side of the portal during the Red's attempted siege of Yellow Command. Now that she had completed that task, she was headed back to the base in the Wilderness.

She robotically strode through the canyon in a steady southerly direction. The sun made the shattered wreckage that used to be Blue Base Kappa shine with brilliance. Some people would call this a nice day. Inez had never really understood this connotation. It was a blue-skied, relatively warm day. But that didn't mean it was nice. Plenty of horribly bloody battles, especially on such a wartorn planet as this, had happened on "nice" days. Rather, she preferred to classify days based on immediate danger. How many factions were attempting to kill her at this very moment? None.

Inez paused and considered the fact that, she not being in any mortal danger at the moment, perhaps it really _was_ a nice day. Then she decided that the very idea of calling days "nice" was ridiculous because days didn't have personalities. She continued walking.

A few minutes later she came upon the entrance structure for Yellow Base. She was glad to see that the supersteel door had been replaced. Just a day ago, when the canyon had been assaulted by the Red Army, the door had been melted off of its hinges by some kind of laser the Reds had used. Upon seeing the now repaired door, Inez was reminded of Yellow Command's efficiency in dealing with these kinds of things. She stepped through the door, which kindly slid up to admit her entrance as soon as she presented herself to the outdoor camera.

She paced through the halls until she neared the kitchen, where she overheard Hearts, Tom, and Deryn having a conversation. Approaching the kitchen door, she could see that the three of them were gathered around a holographic monitor and watching something on YellowNet, the news broadcasting service for the Yellow Army.

Hearts turned to Inez. "Inez, you're back," he said.

"Just finished giving my debriefing," she explained.

"Did you happen to overhear any of the news while you were there?" Deryn asked. "Or maybe look up the current state of Blue territory?"

Inez shook her head.

Tom pointed at the screen. "You should watch this then."

Inez turned her visor to face the holographic screen and YellowNet News. On the screen, a Yellow soldier was standing in front of a map of the Blue territory near the Halothrii Widlerness. She was holding a laser pointer which put a yellow dot of light on the map as she waved it around. On the map itself, Inez could see a large swath of land which was now covered in a layer of red Xs. She distinctively remembered that many of those Xs, if not all of them, used to be Blue strongholds.

The newswoman said: "As you can see, the Hand has taken out a significant area of Blue territory, much of which contained important bases of operations for the Blue presence on this planet. While the misfortunes of an enemy army are never bad news for us, there is still the terrible concern of what the Hand will do when it has finished destroying Blue territory."

The screen then switched to a picture of a giant metal hand, which floated over the landscape ominously. Hundreds of Blue soldiers, looking like little more than ants from the altitude of the camera, were continuously firing at the Hand in a clearly vain attempt to repel it. The Hand responded by emitting red streams of light that turned the ground below it to ash, along with everyone caught in the blast.

"That is The Hand," Inez observed.

"The very same one we saw during the Battle of Yellow Command," said Deryn. "It's in our universe. It's mobile. And worst of all, it is devastating everything in its path."

"I don't want to make it sound like we're all screwed," said Hearts. "But that thing has lasers! Like the one the Reds used to blow up to door to our base, only about a thousand times more powerful. Maybe more."

"Well, at least the universe is still here," said Tom. "That's good news."

"You're a glass-one-percent-full kind of guy, Tom," Hearts replied.

Inez was still watching the footage of The Hand's devastation of Blue territory. "Does Brian know about this yet?" she asked.

Hearts shook his head. "We don't have the slightest idea where he is right now. Not in the base, that's for sure. The door camera showed him going out for a stroll at about nine or so this morning. But he hasn't come back yet."

"He's a former Blue," Inez stated.

"We know," said Deryn.

Inez pointed at the news screen. "And he doesn't know about this?"

"Sad but true," said Hearts while slurping lemonade. "Let him gas himself out on helium before watching this. He should probably be high when he gets news like this anyways. "

Deryn added: "Wherever the fuck he is right now."

* * *

Red Base loomed before Brian and Master Chief like a shadow on the horizon. Its perimeter wall was the main reason for this; it cut off a large part of the end of the plateau and was also blackened from explosions of days past. This gave the curved wall a dark sheen which contrasted with the bright colors of nature surrounding it.

They came to a tunnel, which Brian remembered quite well. Next to the entrance was a sign that read: "Just STEP on in!" as well as a welcome mat with a smiley face on it. Brian had learned to fear the smiley face more than he had feared anything else in his life. It was at this spot that several dozen Blue soldiers had bravely ventured into the tunnel…and been blown up by the mines within. Fortunately, the Green and Yellow soldiers had figured out how to prematurely detonate the rest of the mines, which consequently blew up the tunnel. At this point, the tunnel was little more than a funnel shaped hole in the wall. Confident that no danger lurked within, Brian strode inside.

Twenty meters later, the two of them came upon the courtyard of Red Base. It was immediately evident the kind of past that this location held. Bodies were strewn everywhere along the wide field. All of them were Blue soldiers. Though the assault on Red Base had been a joint operation between the Blues, Yellows, and the Greens, the Blues had been left in this courtyard to distract the Reds while the other two Armies went inside to take out the personnel of the base. It was in the heat of this epic battle that Brian had bravely helped his fellow soldiers to build a really awesome ramp in the middle of the courtyard.

Looking to the center of the field, Brian could see the ramp. It was still there in its entirety. The slanted main board still had an imprint of the tires of a Red vehicle that had used the ramp to shoot into the air. The Blues hadn't intended to help the Reds by building the ramp. But considering that the Reds in that vehicle had exploded while at the apex of their jump (which only added to the awesomeness of the ramp), the project had worked out well in the end.

In stride, Brian had now reached the ramp. He was thinking of circling around it to admire it for awhile, but Master Chief floated in front of him and then looked at the entrance to Red Base. Remembering that they had come to Red Base to actually do something (though Brian no longer knew what), Brian turned and followed the orb over to the entrance. He remembered the look of Red Base's actual entrance well. Too well, perhaps. A durasteel ramp extended into the rock face, but its architectural design made it seem as though it was a great mouth waiting to swallow them. The inside of the ramp structure was glowing with red colored lights, which further enhanced the sense of danger that the entrance imposed.

During the assault on Red Base, Brian had entered through this ramp before. He had left very soon after, however, because there was a confusing maze just beyond the entrance, and he had mistakenly led himself back out into the courtyard. That was when he had stumbled upon the ramp project started by the other Blues, and helped them to complete it. Brian knew that, this time, he would have to enter the maze again. And he would have to successfully find his way through it. Somehow. To Master Chief, he said: "Beyond this entrance is a maze. I got lost in it once before, and ended up back out here by accident. I don't know the way through. Are you really sure we can do this?"

The orb nodded.

"How?" Brian asked.

The orb responded by finding several straight long pieces of debris on the ground and laying them out in a particular way. When Brian looked on the ground before him, he saw

FOLW

"Flow?" Brian asked. "I don't see any water around here. What could you-" He noticed that the orb was shaking itself madly. "Hmmm, not flow," Brian mumbled to himself in thought. He tried hard to think of what other words "folw" might mean. He came up with only one other possible word that Master Chief's message might be referring to. "Do you mean 'follow'?" he asked.

Master Chief nodded.

"You know the way through the maze, don't you?" Brian asked.

Again, the orb nodded.

"Have you been through the maze before?"

The orb shook itself.

"Then how do you know the way through the maze?"

The orb was on no mood to ask any more questions. Instead, it simply floated through the entrance. That was when Brain realized that he had actually been following Master Chief for nearly the entire journey during their quest. Somehow, Master Chief was able to navigate through places that it had never been in before. It did seem to be an artificial intelligence. Perhaps that meant that it possessed some digital map that only it could see, much like the GPS function that had come with Brian's new Yellow set of armor. The orb was floating in the entrance tunnel, clearly waiting for Brian, so the former Blue decided it was time to stop thinking and start moving.

As he expected, the first thing Brian came to was a bare, sparingly-lit room that was cubic in shape and had three doorways, not including the entrance, that lead off in different paths. The former Blue was ready to say that they should find some bread crumbs so that they could make a trail they could retrace if necessary. But Master Chief confidently began floating down the path straight ahead as though it knew exactly where it was going (which, Brian reminded himself, it probably did).

Brian followed Master Chief for several minutes. He was very thankful that the orb was there to lead the way, because otherwise Brain would almost certainly have gotten lost and probably ended up out in the courtyard, as had happened the first time he was here. They went along a path that took many seemingly erratic twists and turns. Brian at first had trouble imagining that there could be any rhyme or reason to the route that the orb was taking. But then he noticed that the orb made a left turn at every several rooms they came across, and then a right turn, alternating between the two directions with each interval. Perhaps there was an orderly way to get through the maze after all, Brian thought to himself.

After the two of them had traveled for what seemed like about a hundred rooms total, they finally came to something that did not look like the rest of the maze. "Oooooh, is that an exit!" Brian shouted as he pointed to a door that Master Chief was already floating towards. Through the door, Brian could see a circular computer room with a row of control panels and monitors lining its circumference. Moving through the door and into the room, he was then able to discover a shaft that began at the center of the room's ceiling and went upwards to a height that was too far above for him to make out. At the opposite end of the room from where he entered, there was also a door leading someplace else.

Master Chief floated over to one of the monitors and stared at it for some moments. Brian noticed that although the orb itself seemed unmoving, the screen was changing. From what he could tell from standing behind the orb as it worked, it was wirelessly imputing some kind of command into the computer. Master Chief always seemed to have a way with computers, Brian thought to himself. After Master Chief had been staring at the monitor for about thirty seconds, an automated voice said: "Portal established. Please enter the next room and drop into the black pit. Have a nice day."

Brian paused as he overheard the last part of the recording's sentence. 'Drop into the black pit' did not seem like a very good way to have a nice day. But Master Chief was undeterred. As soon as the recording ended, it diligently floated through the door to what was presumably the portal room. Brian was very reluctant. But not knowing what else to do since Master Chief had led him in here and he had no idea how to find his way back out, Brian decided that his only option was to follow anyways.

What the two of them found on the other side of the door was, for lack of a better term, a black pit. There was really no other way to describe it. A massive room, perhaps a few times as large as the gymnasium of a high school, stretched out before them. The lighting in the room was very poor, almost nonexistent. A few dim lights illuminated the ceiling, but as far down as Brain and Master Chief were standing, this did not help to spruce up the surroundings very much. As if to make things even more ominous, giant electrified spikes jutted out of the room's walls. Also, the room had no floor. Beyond the point where the door ended, there was simply nothing. The ground dropped off into a dark expanse of blackness. It was a black pit, if ever Brian had seen one.

The former Blue gave one look at the black expanse, turned to Master Chief, and shook his head. "Nope, I'm not doing that. I'm not dropping down there."

Master Chief turned to Brian and then looked down at the expanse.

Brian just shook his head again. He was resolute in the fact that Master Chief, for whatever reason, could not pick him up, and therefore had no way of forcing him to follow it into the pit.

The orb floated over to Brian and then flew straight at his chest. Brian was knocked onto the orb as it collided into him. "Hey, what the heck are you doing?" he shouted. The orb lifted higher off of the ground, with Brian now on top of it, chest facing down. The former Blue struggled madly to free himself, but then realized that…he was over the black pit. And Master Chief was slowly descending into it. Brian stopped struggling, afraid that if he moved too much he would slide off of Master Chief. There was nothing he could do except lie on top of the orb as it took him deeper and deeper into darkness…


	12. The Fortress

12 – THE FORTRESS

The world was a blur. Clair struggled to make sense of what she was seeing. It was all mostly a combination of blue and grey. But as time advanced, things slowly resolved into focus. Indeed, there was blue all around her. The sky was marble blue and cloudless. And there was sea far below her. She discovered that the gray she had observed was really a durasteel floor beneath her. She was lying on a large metal platform, and as she looked about her surroundings she could see durasteel walkways and structures stretching out in some complicated and archaic network. Blocky structures connected the lengths of walkways. Combined with the fact that all of this seemed inexplicably suspended in midair over the water, Clair was reminded of a rubric's cube that had been taken apart, reassembled into some random and disorderly shape, and then suspended above the ground like something on display. Yeah, that about summed up the shape of the structure around her.

She was still in the alternate universe, of that she could be sure of. The real question was: where in it was she, exactly? Another observation provided a hint to an answer. Red soldiers were walking everywhere along the structure, on every part of it that she could see. This was a Red stronghold, then. Now beginning to remember what had happened just before she had been knocked unconscious, Clair realized this actually made sense. She reached for her pistol and discovered that it wasn't there. Inspecting her armor more, she realized that she had been stripped of all weaponry. Cold confirmation entered her thoughts. She had been taken prisoner.

A groggy groan shook Clair from her thoughts. She looked over to find Amber lying beside her. She got up as fast as she could and rushed over to her teammate. "Stone, are you all right?" she asked. From her tacpad, she activated a biometric scanner and waved it over Amber a few times. The results were cause for relief. Amber's helmet was dented a bit from where the Red solider had face punched her, but aside from that she was completely fine; her armor had prevented her actual body from taking any lasting damage.

"Where are we now?" Amber asked slowly as she looked at the surroundings.

"Some kind of fortress for the Red Army, I think," Clair replied. "I hate to tell you this, but I think we've been captured."

"That battle on the island…those soldiers with holographic skulls for visors…" Amber mumbled as she struggled to remember. Then she looked straight at Clair. "They were after me specifically, weren't they? Those soldiers knew me by name."

An all-too-familiar voice called out "Yes, indeed they did come for you. I sent them, after all."

The two Yellows looked in the direction of the voice to find a fusion coil floating in the air behind them. "Vincent," Amber exclaimed with recognition.

"Hello," Vincent replied. "Should I call you 'old friend?' I'm not sure. It seems a bit cliché somehow. That, and we weren't really friends for very long, now were we?" He laughed.

"What do you want, Vincent?" Amber asked sternly.

Vincent rotated himself in a full circle. The Yellows weren't exactly sure what this meant, but hazarding a mental guess, Amber wondered if the coil was looking around at the fortress. It turned out that she was correct. "Do you see this fortress around us?" Vincent asked. "It's not really complete yet. You see, I was having something called a Monitor build it for me. Monitors are extremely useful for that kind of thing. Everything was nice and productive for awhile. _But then some nasty Green people came in and abducted it!_" Vincent took in a deep breath (somehow), as though he had practiced calming down from this subject many times before. When he had breathed in and out for a few seconds, he continued: "Some evil, horrible, bread-mold colored _Green_ people busted their way into the warehouse, goaded the Monitor into traveling with them, and then they sabotaged one of the teleporters and escaped. _Stupid, stupid Green bastards! Ahhhggh!_"

Vincent was now in the difficult process of trying to calm himself down again. Clair turned to Amber while Vincent was distracted. "Do you suppose it's talking about Green Team and Master Chief?" she asked.

Amber nodded. "Seems like it. Vincent's ranting seems to fit the story the Greens told us pretty well, about what happened to them the first time they were in this universe."

"So then, Master Chief's species is called a Monitor," Clair thought aloud.

"Who's Master Chief? What're you talking about?" Vincent shouted as he realized that the Yellows were trying to carry on a conversation without him.

"You're not talking about the Monitor, are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"No," said Clair.

Vincent could tell from her voice that she was lying (she had never been a very good liar, unfortunately), and when the fusion coil figured that out, he exclaimed: "They _named_ it?" He seemed about to go into another anger attack again when he suddenly stopped and asked: "Why _Master Chief_?"

Clair shrugged.

"You do know who the Monitor actually is, don't you?" Vincent asked. When the Yellows gave no response, Vincent sighed and shouted "You know what? Never mind. It doesn't matter." He floated around back and forth in the air a bit, apparently lost in his own thoughts. "Now then, where were we?" He stopped. "Ah, yes, I remember now." He levitated a little closer to the Yellows. "The point I have been trying to make all along is: I don't have a Monitor in my possession anymore. And my fortress, my wonderful fortress, is still not yet complete. I need someone to complete it for me."

"Um, no," Clair protested wile shaking her helmet. "I am a cook, a mechanic, and a medic. But that's it. I don't know anything about structural engineering. Least of all in a universe with physics…" She looked around, trying to come up with a word to describe the situation. "…like this."

"And I'm not even a mechanic," said Amber. "So I'm even less qualified for this job then Sinclair. We can't help you. Sorry."

"Do you think you really have a choice?" Vincent countered. "You are my prisoners. I will not tolerate denial!"

Two Red soldiers marched up behind the Yellows.

"You will follow me," said Vincent.

At the behest of the Red soldiers, the Yellows got up off the ground and started walking behind Vincent as he floated through several twists and turns of walkway. Eventually they ended up on one of the large walkways that connected several wings of the fortress. About halfway along this walkway was a gigantic steel cube. It was almost as large as Happy the Giant Bomb, perhaps a bit smaller. In any case, it was still huge. Clair estimated that it must weigh at least ten times as much as a Scorpion-Class Main Battle Tank.

Vincent stopped moving and turned one of his sides to face the Yellows. "The first thing I need you to do is push this block all the way to the other end of this walkway so that it completes a bridge set up on the other side."

"And just how in the flying fuck are we supposed to do that?" Amber asked.

"You're my prisoners, so it's your problem," said Vincent. "Look, when the Monitor was here, it was able to pick these things up like they were little paper cups, and it just sat them wherever it wanted them. Why can't you people do the same?"

"Do we look like Monitors to you?" Clair protested.

"_Now look_," said Vincent sternly. "I have been very tolerant with the differences of the Red Army, and of you, for a long time now. You're twice as tall as I am, not to mention the fact that you have limbs…my point is that I will not put up with racism in my fortress. Profiling yourself or other people as Monitor-like or non-Monitor-like is simply unacceptable. I am tolerant of your differences, so why can't you be so as well? I don't want to turn this into a civil rights issue-"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Clair and Amber asked in unison.

"DO NOT INTERRUPT ME!" Vincent shouted. "Stupid Yellow bipedal people, always…" Vincent trailed off as the concept of hypocrisy entered his thoughts. Instead he just went with: "Now push that block, prisoners!"

The Yellows remained unmoving.

"_I said push it!_"

"Why not?" Amber said to Clair as she shrugged. "The worst that can happen is that we prove to Vincent we aren't capable of moving a block larger then our base entrance structure." Clair nodded.

The two of them walked slowly towards the giant block of steel. As soon as they both had set their shoulders to the cold steel, Amber said "On the count of three."

"Just push it already!" Vincent shouted.

The Yellows heaved. Of course, the block didn't budge a millimeter. After grunting for about fifteen seconds, the two of them stopped and faced Vincent.

"Told you, we can't do it," said Clair.

"You're not pushing hard enough, dammit!" Vincent shouted at them. "Try again!"

They did try again. The block still did not move.

Vincent growled. "Stupid Yellow bipeds! You're going to move this block! I'm going to leave now, because there are other things I need to attend to. But when I come back, I want to see this block moved! Now get to work!" The fusion coil floated off, leaving the Yellows with the Red guards.

Amber turned to Clair. "Well now what?"

Clair shrugged. "I don't know."

Amber sighed. "Ugh, this is all so stupid!"

"I hear you," said Clair. "We're trapped in the lair of an evil fusion coil who wants us to move a block that is, for our purposes, unmovable. This sucks." The two of them stood in silence for awhile before Clair then continued with: "How did all of this start anyways?"

"All of what?" Amber asked.

"This," said Clair while waving her arms. "The Red Army. The attack on Command. The universe being thrown in jeopardy. Us being taken prisoner by a fusion coil. Everything."

"It seems like it all started less than a week ago," said Amber.

Clair nodded. "Supposedly, it was when that Green named Skope sniped Vincent's pile in the canyon." She then looked Amber straight in the visor. "You were even there when it happened, weren't you?"

Amber nodded. "Yeah, that was when I killed the Green's base commander and put a cap in Skope's ass." She laughed. "Kind of odd that we ended up in a truce with the Greens not so long after that happened."

Clair nodded again. "Yup, that's some peculiar luck. For both our Armies."

"That day in the canyon was the first time in a long time that things really started to happen," Amber continued. "Up until that day I had been pretty bored. I wanted to go out and do things."

"I kind of wish things would go back to being the way they were, actually," Clair said. "Before the Red Army came, things were docile. Kind of quiet. I liked that."

"You really didn't get out much before all this happened, did you?" Amber asked.

Clair shook her head. "Not really. I don't often feel the need to. I spend so much time in the base, just doing things, that by the time I have some free time I feel like I just want to be by myself."

"You don't ever feel the need for action?" Amber asked.

"I get enough action in my life by dealing with a microwave oven that's firing off .50 caliber rounds because some _idiot_ stuck a magnum in it and turned it on."

Amber nodded. "That's a point, I guess." She then decided to change the subject. "Reading any good books?"

Clair shrugged. "I read Tolkien, mostly. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is of course my favorite of his works, though I've found other books he's written that supplement the history of Middle Earth, such as the Silmarillion, to be pretty good as well."

"I loved the movies," said Amber. "Never really got into the books though."

"So what do you read, then?" Clair asked.

"I'm all about romance novels," Amber stated proudly.

Clair looked directly at her. "_You?_"

Amber looked back at Clair. "What?"

"It's nothing," said Clair. When Amber kept staring at her, she then explained: "Well, it's just that…you're one of the sternest people I've ever known. I would never have guessed that you're into romance novels."

Amber put her hands on her hips. "And as of when does being stern discourage someone from reading romance novels?"

Clair shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well, I read-"

The Yellows looked over to the source of the new voice. It was one of the Red soldiers. When he realized that he had spoken aloud, he suddenly jolted up straight and said "Never mind." The second Red soldier looked in the direction of the first, shook his head, and then continued to monitor the Yellows.

Clair and Amber turned their attention back to each other. "What about TV shows?" Clair asked.

"Heroes," Amber exclaimed. "I love that show!"

"I thought the first season of it was pretty good," said Clair. "But after that things started to kind of suck."

Clair groaned. "It was the writer's strike. It disrupted the production of later seasons and forced them to halve the length of seasons 2 and 3 because they just didn't have enough material by the time release dates came around. So they combined 2 and 3 into one season, calling each of them 'volumes'."

"I think I get it," said Clair.

"That series is awesome," continued Amber. "But a real tragedy, in its own way."

The discussion seemed to trail off, with neither Yellow really knowing where to take the conversation from there.

"_You still haven't moved it yet?_"

The Yellows looked up to find Vincent floating towards them with an angry glow.

"Oh look, Mr. Destroy The Freaking Universe is back," said Amber.

"No doubt he still thinks we can move that giant block," said Clair. "I really hope the rest of Lime finds us soon. Because I'm getting _really sick_ of this bullshit."

* * *

Somewhere in the matchmaking universe, a fierce battle raged. A giant metal arena stood with eight players, four red colored and four blue colored. They all wielded giant clubs and were fighting over a large metal ball that was apparently supposed to be a bomb, which each team was trying to place on the opposing team's capture plate.

Patton did not enjoy being colored blue. But the Yellow inside of him burned with ever increasing fury. "Wren, is this match taking us in the right direction?" he called over to Hester's sister, who was also colored blue for the sake of the game.

"That's correct, sir!" Wren reported. "We need to keep doing this playlist, and it should eventually take us really close to where Sinclair's signal is originating from."

"Excellent," Patton responded.

The ten remaining members of Lime Squadron had split up into multiple teams in order to satisfy the conditions of the Grifball Playlist, which gave a maximum of only four people per team. Patton's team consisted of himself, Wren, Hester, and Ryan. The Green part of Lime had split up into two teams of three each. Once they all got close enough to Amber's signal, they hoped to be able to reunite before the rescue attempt. That was the current plan, anyways.

"Fear not, Stone and Sinclair," Patton said quietly to himself as he lifted his club over an enemy player and brought it straight down upon the player's helmet. "We're coming for you."


	13. The Artifact

13 – THE ARTIFACT

Brian had been screaming for several moments now. The constant feeling that he was falling had prompted him to exclaim at the top of his lungs as much as possible. He hated feeling weightless, as he had discovered the hard way during his fall. Much less that he was being lowered into a dark abyss by a metal orb whose intentions were now rather shady (Brain still wanted that cheese sandwich that he'd thought he was going after). Brian wasn't entirely sure why this had happened, but at some point during the descent he had been overtaken by the overwhelming idea that he was about to die. Probably because he was falling into a seemingly bottomless pit. This was what had prompted the screaming in the first place. A feeling of complete helplessness had come over him, something he'd never felt before. This was the end. There was nothing he could do now but just scream. So he wailed as loud as he could-

Then he looked down and realized that he was standing once more on solid ground.

He stopped wailing. Glancing over, he noticed that Master Chief was now off to his side, and staring at him with the fixation that it often exhibited. Brian wasn't sure exactly how long he'd been screaming while on the ground. The way the orb was staring at him, he guessed that it might have been a long time. Or perhaps it was better not to think about it. Brian decided to look around instead. This new place he was in probably had something cool to see in it.

The first thing he noticed was that the air was extremely cold. Though his armor protected him from the effects of the atmosphere, the readout on his heads-up display showed Brian that the temperature was just below twenty degrees Celsius. Brain slightly regretted not bringing any popsicles, because this seemed like a pretty good place to store them. Or ice cream, for that matter. Then Brian remembered the context of the current situation and decided to abandon that thought, at least for the moment.

Surrounding Brain and Master Chief were tall grey walls that were covered with layers of ice. The main chamber, which was in kind of an L shape, stretched up for many meters. At the approximate corner of the L was a metal structure, about the size of a large statue, which was shining a beam of light upwards. Brain followed this beam with his eyes and discovered that along the sides of the chamber were walkways leading back and forth between different higher levels of the complex. These walkways emerged out of the walls of the main chamber, and at the ends of them Brain could see smaller rooms that led into the layout of these higher levels. He could also see doors leading off from his current level (which he believed to be the lowest). Arbitrarily, he chose the exit directly behind him. It was as good a way to go as any, and it was closest. Master Chief followed.

The hallway was rather narrow and quickly made a turn to the right. As soon as it did, Brain came upon a window looking outside. Brain was astonished at what he saw. A bleak and barren landscape of snow and ice stretched out as far as he could see, glittering like that time Mike Whatshisface broke that jar of glitter over his armor. It looked like XBOXL1V's arctic pole, only even colder, if that was even possible.

"We're definitely not in the Halothrii Wilderness any more, are we, Master Chief?" Brain asked rhetorically.

Master Chief shook itself.

Brian continued through the hallway. It soon turned into an upward ramp, which led to the next level of the complex. At the ramp's end was a room that turned the path around and led back out into the main chamber, only this time the path was on one of the walkways Brian had seen earlier from the bottom. As Brain began to walk upon it, he realized that he could now see high enough to glimpse what the light beam from the central structure on the first floor was connecting to.

In the air above him, simply floating in place without any supports, was an object that looked to be made of some kind of incredibly smooth crystal. It was silver colored, with a hint of blue, yet in the light it glinted more brightly then Brian had ever seen even glass do. The object was hollow on the inside and vaguely rounded at the bottom, kind of like a testing tube, except composed entirely of flat surfaces. On the top of the object the smooth surfaces suddenly gave way to jagged toothlike edges. Floating in the air around the object were shards of the same kind of crystal. It looked as though something inside of the object had exploded at one point, forcing the top to be annihilated. It was interesting how well intact the bottom of the object was when compared to the shards that once composed the top. It looked like whatever was inside had blasted it open.

Behind the object was a window looking out into the landscape, set so that light from outside shone upon the crystal object to make it glitter the way that it did. However, the metal bars that had clearly run across the window at one point now looked as though they had been ripped apart and bent inward as if something large had forced its way through them. The bars were bent back at odd angles, and some bars had been moved so forcefully that they looked as though they were barely hanging onto the wall. Whatever had gone through them, Brian decided, had NOT wanted to stay in this place.

Taking his gaze back to the crystal object, Brian then noticed something on the light beam structure itself. Though it began on the first floor, it was tall enough to reach up to the level of walkway where Brain and Master Chief were standing. And on one of its sides was what looked like an inscription. Brian motioned over to Master Chief, and the orb came in closer. Together they read the text.

_Here lies Amnion the Bringer of Chaos. His history is bound in war and darkness. He once attempted to hold the universe in his thrall, and all people were made to fear his wrath. Only the power of The Maintainer was able to end his campaign of destruction and trap him here. May his imprisonment last for all eternity. Bound by the sins of his past, he has been condemned to this place, to live out the rest of his existence in solitude and isolation from all other sentient beings. To all those who read this inscription: Leave this place and never return, and tell others to stay away. None but Pandora's Box resides here._

Brian finished reading and looked back up at the crystal object. "That's supposed to be a prison, huh?" he thought out loud to himself. "Well it's not anymore. Whoever or whatever was in there is definitely gone now. Kinda glad for that. Wouldn't want to meet whoever was in that thing." He shrugged and then turned to Master Chief. "Why are we here, again?"

The orb responded by floating over to the central structure and floating down into the gap where light was coming out of. Brian stood still, not knowing what to do. "Um, Master Chief? Where'd you go?"

The light coming out of the structure suddenly ceased, and at the same time the crystal structure floating above the statue lost whatever was making it float and crashed to the ground, sending crystal shards flying everywhere like a grenade going off. Brain looked around wildly as he became even more puzzled, too shocked to even notice a large section of crystal bounce off his helmet. After a moment or so, Master Chief floated back out of the statue. It was levitating something.

Brian stepped closer as Master Chief brought the object down to the walkway for him to observe. It was a glowing yellow ball of light, just slightly greater in diameter than Master Chief itself. The ball was translucent and somewhat see-through, as if it were made of solid beams of sunlight. There were several small metallic objects on the surface of the ball, evenly spaced from each other, and it looked as though the ball was being somehow held together by these smaller objects.

"Is this what we came here for?" Brian asked Master Chief.

The orb nodded. Then it maneuvered the ball over to the parallel plate capacitor that Brain was holding and gently slid it in between the two plates. As soon as it was in place, the ball began to levitate on its own, being kept between the plates by an electric field, and it began to spin with increasing speed. Brian and Master Chief watched with fascination. Eventually, the ball found a constant speed to spin at and stabilized. The capacitor seemed to hum happily.

"So now what?" Brian asked.

The orb looked at Brain, then back at the contraption.

"So this is what we needed to assemble, then, is it?" asked Brian. "This is the weapon that can destroy The Hand?"

The orb nodded. Then it looked closely at the contraption for a second. Brian felt it vibrate unusually for a moment. That was when a beam shot out of the ball, through the gap between the contraption's plates, and where the beam ended suddenly formed a huge wall of white light. The light became more intense, brightening out the room, until all Brian could see was light.

Then everything became black.

Brain stumbled aimlessly around wherever he was now. As his eyes adjusted, he realized that he was standing in the control room in Red Base again. The contraption was still in his hands, its ball spinning normally again. As his eyes continued to recover from the intensity of the light, the former Blue gradually was able to see more of the room. Master Chief was floating off to his side.

"We're back," Brian mumbled. "No cheese sandwich though. Aw."

Master Chief led the way back outside. Brain of course had to follow it through the maze again, because he was just as hopeless at finding his way through it on his own as he had been the other times. After a couple of minutes they were outside again. Brain exited the starting room of the maze and skipped happily down the ramp, relishing in the fact that he was no longer in places that were dark and scary. Then he noticed something.

"Hey, why is it evening?" he asked Master Chief. He remembered that it had been only early afternoon when they had entered Red Base, and it couldn't possibly have been that long since then, only an hour at most. Yet the look of the sky seemed to imply that it had been _several_ hours.

The orb shook itself. Brian decided to interpret that to mean that Master Chief didn't know.

"Was it something to do with us being in another reality?" Brian persisted. "Like, time travel or something?"

Again, the orb shook itself. Then it began floating towards the tunnel leading out of the courtyard. Brian followed. They apparently had accomplished everything they had intended to for their quest. Brain had never come upon the super-awesome cheese sandwich he wanted, but considering that they could now potentially save the universe, he decided that he could forgive Master Chief for not being honest with him about the sandwich's existence. Now it was time to head back to base and call the quest a good day's work.

* * *

Hearts, Tom, Deryn, and Inez were assembled in the comm room. The four of them stood at each corner of the holographic console in the room's center. All four of them were initially silent, giving err to the seriousness of the situation.

Hearts stated loudly: "As all of you have seen from YellowNet, The Hand of the Reds is now mobile. We do not yet know if it has capability to destroy this universe, but if it doesn't, then it soon will. Therefore, the time has come for us to decide how we are to go about taking it out."

This was where Deryn took over. "Just a few hours ago, Inez and I worked together to come up with a schematic for a device that can overload the Hand's reactors and cause it to self destruct." She waved her hand at the holographic console. The console came to life, showing a three-dimensional representation of a device. Deryn elaborated: "The specifications require a special kind of ionized gas, contained within a spherical energy shield, which in turn is kept within the presence of a powerful electric field. A parallel plate capacitor should suffice for the latter part."

"The parallel plate capacitor should be simple enough to construct," said Tom. "But where are we supposed to get the ionized gas? And how are we supposed to contain it within a _spherical_ energy shield?"

"We don't really know yet," said Deryn. "I admit, such technology appears to be beyond us. But the scientist teams at Command have confirmed that this is the only way to destroy a weapon such as The Hand."

"So what do we do then?" Hearts asked.

"We must find some way of constructing this device," said Inez coldly. "Or the consequences could be the worst in our history."

"Have the scientist teams given us any idea as to how to assemble this?" Tom asked.

Deryn shook her head.

"We need more help than this," said Hearts. "Never mind that stupid Blue though." He checked the time on his heads-up display. "It's after six! Will Brain ever finish gassing himself out on helium? Useless-"

Brain suddenly burst into the room, followed closely by Master Chief. The other four people in the room quickly turned their attention to the former Blue. They noticed that Brian was holding something. He walked up to the holographic display and dumped it onto the console, which consequently dimmed out the hologram projection. "Hey guys!" Brian greeted enthusiastically. "I have a device that can destroy the Hand!"

Hearts was about to enquire at just what kind of game Brain was playing, bursting in on a vitally important meeting like this and disrupting everything. But then he took a look at the device on the table…and noticed that it looked exactly like the schematics from Command.

Every member of Lemon stared at the device that Brain had set atop the holographic console.

Hearts stepped closer to the weapon, looking it over. "Brian…where in the _hell_ did you get this?"

Brain exhaled loudly. "Well, that's a pretty long story. It's been a very eventful day. Basically, what happened is that Master Chief enlisted my help to find a really awesome cheese sandwich…" The members of Lemon nodded slowly, pretending that they were following along as Brian spoke. "…so we went to this lab complex and Master Chief found this thing with plates…" Brian pointed to the parallel plate capacitor. "…and I was allowed to carry it. And I think that was when I realized that we weren't actually on a quest for a cheese sandwich. Anyways, we then ended up back at my old base, Iota Base, where I got back in touch with some of my old friends…"

Brian started to go on about all the things that he had talked about with his friends at Iota Base since he had last been there, but Deryn interrupted with: "You went to Iota Base and then talked with friends. What happened after that?"

Brian thought for a moment, getting his thoughts back on track. "After that we went over to Red Base. Really scary still, even when there wasn't a battle going on."

"Hang on," Hearts interrupted. "You went back to _Red Base?_ Why?"

Brian shrugged. "It's where we found that." He pointed to the glowing yellow ball between the plates of the parallel plate capacitor. Master Chief nodded as Brian talked, verifying that everything he said was true. "We fell into this black pit and then ended up in this giant complex that was really cold and had ice over it. Then we came upon some kind of structure that had this weird crystal thing levitating on top of it. Master Chief went into the structure and pulled out the glowey ball thing, and then opened up some kind of interdimensional portal and we got back here." He shrugged again. "And yeah, that's about what happened."

Lemon stared at Brain.

"Sometimes I really wish the orb could talk," said Tom.

The former Blue emitted a loud yawn. "Well, it's been a really long day for me," he said while flexing out his arms in a stretching motion. "I'm gonna be in the kitchen getting something to eat." He jumped as he suddenly had a thought. "I know. I'll have a cheese sandwich. A really super awesome cheese sandwich!" He turned towards the door. "C'mon, Master Chief! Let's go make a cheese sandwich!" The orb seemed to roll its eye a bit, then followed Brian as he left the room.

The rest of Lemon was left to think over what had just happened. "Brian assembled the device we need," Hearts mumbled aloud to himself. "_Brian_ assembled the device." To the others he said: "Am I the only one confused by this?"

Deryn, Tom, and Inez shook their helmets in unison.

Tom shrugged. "Well, I think the thing that matters right now is that we have the device."

Hearts nodded. He picked up the weapon and set it out of the way of the holographic projector, then entered the code to send a transmission to Yellow Command so that he could inform Bradley that they had the device.


	14. The Empress

14 – THE EMPRESS

The command dome of the _Avant Garde_ was illuminated by the bluish glow of a hologram emitted from the dome's central console. Standing in the shadows, Nezilus Thane patiently watched the events taking place at the console. On a transparent blue grid, a game of chess was underway. Hathrow Vorennius was challenging the _Avant Garde's_ computer, as usually happened on the morning of a battle, because the admiral wanted to sharpen his mind as much as possible before commanding his army. The impending invasion of Orange territory was likely to be long and challenging, especially when considering the extraction operation needed to collect the quantum manipulator that Vincent had specified. The Admiral needed to be as mentally prepared as possible when it began.

The _Avant Garde's_ artificial intelligence was the most sophisticated known to exist. Consequently, it was also the most proficient chess player known to exist. This made it a wonderful opponent for Vorennius. An opponent who had yet to be mastered was irresistible to Vorennius' competitive and calculating mind. He was constantly thinking of new strategies to beat the AI at its own game. It was understandable that the games between the AI and Vorennius were both intense and involved. They had been known to spend several hours on a single game (though on a morning like this, when a battle would soon need commanding, the Admiral had to keep it to a time limit). But even with the Admiral's remarkable intellect and ability to deliberate, the artificial intelligence nearly always outsmarted him. A tactical genius he might be, but against an entity that could think several hundred moves ahead if necessary and had adapted through experience to all of Vorennius' strategies (it was one of those special "learning" AIs), the Admiral had little chance of actually winning. At this point, the games were usually about seeing how many moves Vorennius could hold out. The games were so involved that none but the AI and Vorennius could keep track, but Thane guessed that the greatest number of moves Vorennius had ever held out in a game was around two-hundred and fifty or so.

Vorennius had defeated the AI in the past. In the three years since the Purple leadership had taken residence on the _Avant Garde_ and gained access to its AI, victory for the Admiral at chess had only ever happened once, almost exactly a year ago now. During the endgame phase of a particularly long game that had lasted a record six hours, Vorennius had finally managed to trap the AI's king in a delicately woven web of check moves, and then enacted checkmate using every single one of his remaining pieces on the board. It was an occasion, and Vorennius had hosted a VIP celebration on the bridge the following day. The AI, being adaptive and very receptive to experience, would of course never allow such a strategy to be used against it ever again. But this only encouraged Vorennius to find more such strategies, and so the rivalry between Admiral and artificial intelligence continued. At this very moment, the game was being used only as a mind-sharpening tool. But there was still no denying that the Admiral took his chess games VERY seriously.

Thane glanced at his heads-up display and noticed that there were only minutes before the scheduled deployment of Purple contingents into Orange territory. To Vorennius, he called out: "Admiral, it is nearly time for the invasion to begin."

Vorennius glanced over at Thane and nodded. Turning back to the chess grid, he said: "Computer, save the current game. We will have to continue this another time."

"File saved," the computer reported. "It has been a pleasure playing with you, Admiral. As always."

"And you, of course," the Admiral replied. Then he turned his attention to Thane. "Is the fleet of dropships in position?"

Thane nodded.

"Excellent," Vorennius said, exhaling the word slowly as though he was savoring it. "Everything is in place."

He turned back to the holographic console and waved his arm in the air above it. Immediately, the bluish grid was replaced with the image of the planet XBOXL1V. "Select predetermined battlefield," Vorennius commanded. The spherical image changed, zooming in to a specific place on the planet. It now showed a two dimensional map of all Orange controlled regions on a particular continent. This was denoted by a wide variety of orange colored symbols spread across those regions. Each type of icon represented a different type of outpost, such as fortifications, medical facilities, barracks, and many others. On the edge of the continent, along the seaboard, was a row of several dozen purple colored icons, with each of these icons represented one contingent of Purple soldiers ready to land. Indeed, all preparations were in place.

And now the time had come. Vorennius reached out with his hand and touched his fingertip to the surface of the planet, running it along the line of Purple forces stationed on the outskirts of Orange territory. Once the tip of the Admiral's gauntlet had made it most of the way across the row, the computer automatically selected every Purple contingent by default. Vorennius lifted his finger from the seaboard and drew a straight line using the same method, this time leading from the seaboard onto the mainland and towards the first set of Orange bases. Vorennius lifted his finger from the hologram's surface a second time, and the instant he did the line he had traced out was bolded in a large purple colored arrow, denoting the "attack" command. "Order sent," the computer reported.

On cue, the purple icons, each one representing a fleet of dropships carrying a total of one hundred and twenty soldiers, began to move across the surface of the hologram. They closed in on the nearby set of Orange bases in ordered formation, setting themselves up so that the dropships with energy shield generators were in front, thereby protecting both themselves and the contingents flying in behind them.

As the deployments neared the enemy bases, Vorennius opened up a separate menu and keyed up one of the icons on it, hovering his hand over it as he waited for the right moment to select it. As the Admiral had predicted, several new Orange icons, smaller than the ones representing their respective bases, suddenly appeared and began moving to intercept the Purple attack force. Vorennius kept his finger primed above the menu icon. The distance between the Orange and Purple forces was now closing quickly. Soon the moment came when the Orange forces seemed almost about to collide with the attack force. This was the instant Vorennius had been seeking. He depressed the tip of his gauntlet into the menu icon. At once, the front row dropships diverted power from their energy shields and released a blast upon the Orange ships, who of course had not prepared for it. The electromagnetic pulse caused the Orange ships to lose formation as their engines failed and they went into a tailspin.

Vorennius selected another menu option, this one far more benign. A separate window appeared showing a camera feed of the real time events of the battle as they occurred, taken from the front-most dropship. From it, he could see the desperate Orange intercept forces trailing helplessly down to the planet's surface as they struggled in vain to restart their engines. The electromagnetic pulse had expunged any hope of that, of course. The Purple dropships had been armored with a special kind of plating that was both nonmetallic and resisted magnetic flux, thereby protecting them from the effect of the pulse. The front-most ships had likely felt something from the blast they released, but it was non-threatening because their plating had reflected so much of the shockwave.

As the Orange ships collided with the ground's surface, Vorennius made note of the ones that exploded (being confirmed KIA) and those that did not. He then ordered the contingents in the back rows to fire upon the crash sites with their mounted chainguns, thereby ensuring that any survivors were neutralized. A few would probably escape anyways, but that was inevitable and inconsequential; the full attack would be underway long before the survivors would be able to give any warning, since all their electronics would be fried from the EMP blast. In any case, things were still going very much to plan: the Orange Army's intercept force had been taken out, and the nearby enemy bases were now completely defenseless.

A veritable city of closely spaced Orange buildings stretched out before the Purple soldiers. This was the same grouping of bases iconed on the hologram in the _Avant Garde's_ command room, though the Admiral could see them just as well through the camera feed from before, which had been taken from the lead dropship and was now being worn by one of the Colonels in the advancing infantry force. Towers stretched up from the ground to mimic sky scrapers (the administrative and office buildings) while below them lay an array of smaller structures being frequented by Orange soldiers (the barracks, mess halls, and medical facilities). Transport craft flew back and forth between the structures.

Vorennius ordered the dropships to deploy their contingents at the field bordering the city of bases. The key here would be to overwhelm the base's defenses before the soldiers inside could realize what was going on, since (hopefully) the Oranges hadn't yet figured out that their intercept force had been entirely destroyed. As soon as the Admiral's order reached them, the dropships settled gracefully onto the ground and a swarm of soldiers in purple clad armor emerged. As they had been trained to, the contingents fell into order with respect to each other, setting up deployable energy shield domes at the front to serve as a wall that would reflect incoming projectiles, and having the artillery specialists take place in the back-most rows. Once everyone was in formation, the army began to move in.

A cacophony of loud noises broke out, a sudden roar of simultaneous automatic fire that signified the Orange soldiers were beginning to take the initiative on defense. Vorennius could see this from the battlefield layout by the way that the Orange soldiers were arranging themselves into a standard line. As planned, the advancing Purple forces took no damage from the barrage of bullets, though the same could not be said for the Oranges. The portable energy shields the Purples used only blocked projectiles one way, those trying to come_ into_ the domes. But anything going out of the domes was completely unaffected. So although the Purples were protected, the Oranges were assaulted by the projectiles from the Purple's attack. Orange soldiers fell to the ground all along their front line as the one way exchange dealt them the bad hand. The portable shield domes reflected the metal projectiles, sending them back out like BB rounds bouncing off of a beach ball, and so there were no casualties on the Purple side. The Oranges quickly realized this, and it was not long before the barrage ended.

Now it was the Purple Army's turn to enact its own strike. While the Oranges had been exhausting themselves with their own barrage, the artillery specialists had been charging up a special kind of mortar weapon that fired miniature tactical missiles that locked onto a particular target. From behind the wall of shield domes, an overwhelming whooshing sound built up in intensity. Then several hundred small objects flew up into the sky, each emitting its own trial of smoke. Combined, the fleet of missiles blackened the western sky, cutting off sunlight and plunging the city of Orange bases into darkness. The line of Orange soldiers stumbled back from the sight in the sky ahead of them and looked at the people around them for confirmation that they were all seeing the same thing. Then suddenly began to retreat, breaking formation in a hasty dash to what they believed was safety.

They were too late. A hail deadlier than any other kind on the planet struck the front contingents of the Orange Army as they had only begun the process of scurrying back. Vorennius relied on the tactical display from the battlefield's hologram to keep himself informed about what was going on; when the missiles reached ground, the Oranges were lost in an abyss of black smoke and bright fire. Though he had little doubt that there had been a great many casualties. The continuous scanning from the _Avant Garde_, which informed the battlefield display, confirmed the Admiral's assertion: casualties within the Orange Army's front row averaged out to ninety percent. All other contingents were able to escape the missile barrage, however, and managed to make it back to the city, where they would be able to use the buildings there for cover.

Vorennius crossed his arms. It seemed, then, that the next phase of the battle was underway: it was time to level the city. He cued up the artillery specialist units and ordered them to fire upon the supports of each building. The Oranges believed they could hold out better within their own structures, and it was precisely that yearning for safety that would be their own undoing. This was a classic example of what Vorennius had become renowned for; using his enemies' motivations to lead them where he wanted them. The Admiral ordered the artillery specialist contingents to set their missiles to their alternate mode: lock on. He then specified that they fire at the supports of all structures so that they could be leveled most efficiently. Thus began the end of the city.

A wicked wind of missiles blew through the city. Flying rivers of the large projectiles flowed through the city as though they made up a fluid. The swarms spread throughout the city on divergent paths as each individual missile acquired its specific target. And as the missiles began to reach their targets, the buildings within the city began to fall like dominoes. As each building collapsed to the ground, it left in its place a plume smoke, and it was not long before the entire city had been engulfed in it.

Scanning for life signs, the _Avant Garde's_ computer informed the Admiral that the Orange forces had been reduced to only five percent of their original population. Vorennius stepped back from the holographic console. This battle was well and truly over. The first phase of his campaign into Orange territory was now complete, though there was still much ground to cover before his forces would reach the capitol-

"Incoming transmission," the _Avant Garde's_ computer reported, interrupting the Admiral's thoughts.

"From whom?" Vorennius asked.

An identification file was displayed on a separate window from the holographic console. Vorennius recognized it immediately. "She must be quite desperate to contact me already," he postulated aloud to himself. "She is ahead of schedule."

"Do you want to answer the transmission?" the computer asked.

"Yes, immediately," Vorennius responded.

The holographic image of XBOXL1V was replaced with an equally sized image of a soldier in orange colored armor. But the armor of this soldier was unlike that of any other Orange soldier. This armor had been given a reflective sheen so that it shone like silver and a katana was slung over the soldier's back. But the helmet was the most audacious: on its helm were seven angular spikes that radiated out from it, three on either side and one on the rear guard which made the top of the helmet pointed, and beneath the helmet was a golden neck guard, situated so that it was reminiscent of a samurai helmet. Vorennius had been very well informed about this soldier and her reputation, and her name was well known to all on this side of the planet: Selina Owara, Empress of the Orange Army.

"Empress," Vorennius greeted.

"_Admiral_," Selina said with distaste.

"I assume this conversation is in regard to the current invasion of your territory," Vorennius said smugly as though he was commenting on the weather.

"I demand to know why you have launched this unprovoked attack!" the Empress demanded.

"Unprovoked?" Vorennius asked rhetorically with an err of amusement. "Really? You seem to be forgetting that our armies are sworn enemies of each other. That makes any attack I launch upon you eventual."

"We both know that isn't the only reason you're doing this," the Empress stated.

Vorennius crossed his arms and nodded. "Yes, quite right." He leaned in closer to Selina's image. "The real reason I'm doing this, of course, is because you have something I want."

"And what could be so important?" Selina asked.

"A device that, by now, you should be all too well acquainted with," Vorennius answered. "A quantum manipulator."

The Empress recoiled from the camera, shocked. "You want _that_? Why?"

"I have gained what information I could about that happened to your army since the Battle of Earth," Vorennius explained. "From what informants have told me, I know that your last desperate act four years ago sent the remnants of your army on quite a journey."

"Even though everyone else believed that my army had been wiped out until just recently," Selina put in.

Vorennius continued: "Of course, the events of the Battle of Earth are well known to all. Who could ever forget? When the Yellow-Blue Alliance was leading a campaign to have your army exterminated, and Earth was surrounded, you enacted the only option left to you: you attempted to defend Earth by generating around it a massive spatial distortion, a barrier of curved space that would prevent anyone and anything from reaching or leaving that planet. But it backfired. Instead of going as planned, you ended up creating a resonance cascade in slipspace which opened up a wormhole and sucked your entire fleet into the universe's other dimensions. I still don't really know what happened to you while you were in that strange alternate realm, but I do know that in order to find your way back to this universe you would have needed a quantum manipulator, something to anchor your quantum state back to the baseline of this universe."

"But what use would a quantum manipulator have to _you_?" Selina asked.

"That is for me to know," said Vorennius. "Perhaps you've noticed, but my army is steadily advancing along your continent, even as we speak. You are not exactly in the position to make demands of me. I will tell you what I want you to know and nothing more."

"Well, there is something that I want _you_ to know, Vorennius," Selina stated. "My army came back into this universe using a quantum manipulator, as you have said. We re-entered in this planet's system, though I don't know why. Our arrival point was beyond our control, and it is as though we were drawn here by something. Regardless, this planet has become our last refuge. We will do everything in our power to protect what we own of it. And you should not expect to conquer our territory easily. If you want the quantum manipulator then you will have to work to claim it."

Vorennius waved his hand at the holographic console, which pulled up a second image alongside the one of the Empress, this one being the overhead map of the Purple's campaign into the Orange's continent. The Admiral made sure that the image was within Selina's sight before he said: "Well then, Empress, we shall let this game of territories continue."

The Empress clenched her fist at Vorennius and cut the transmission.


	15. Griffball Arena

15 – GRIFFBALL ARENA

Dozens of bodies littered the Griffball Arena as two sides, a red colored team and a blue colored team, fought for epic supremacy over a large metal ball that was supposed to be a bomb. Patton, Hester, Wren, and Ryan consisted of the blue colored team. The opposing (red) team was composed of the alien species that populated this weird alternate universe, which were called "players". Patton and his team had been fighting their way along the Griffball playlist, hoping that it would lead them closer towards the alternate dimension where the Red Army had taken Amber and Clair. According to Wren's tacpad readouts, this current match was the closest they had yet come to reaching their goal. Patton absolutely hated being colored blue, even though it was just for the sake of the match, but considering that it was necessary to reach their intended destination, there was nothing to do about it.

Patton's team was winning, of course. They currently lead the score of this match at 2 – 0. None on his team had died yet, though the other team hadn't been so lucky. Every time one member of the red team went down, they suddenly reappeared on their team's side of the arena only a couple of seconds later. It was interesting that this happened for the other team, because it did them so little good. Patton knew that his team had taken out members of the other team dozens of times at this point. Honestly, his opponents reminded him of Blues. He remembered, just a few moments ago, overhearing one of the other team's members talk about checking something called a K-D spread, and then all of a sudden that player just started shouting obscenities like no one's business.

As the situation worsened for the red colored team, the fighting only intensified. It seemed entirely out of desperation, but somehow the other team thought that they could somehow turn the game around by fighting even harder, though so far this had only resulted in an increased death rate on their part. At this point, there were so many red colored bodies lining the arena's floor that it was starting to border on ridiculousness.

Suddenly the fighting was interrupted by the sound of rotors. The Yellows in blue colored armor looked up into the sky to see two Falcons approaching the arena. And piloting both of them were recognizable soldiers in Green suit. Both Falcons hovered for a moment before taking place side by side with each other over the center of the battleground.

The team in red colored armor just stared at the Falcons, as though they couldn't believe this was happening. As if to confirm this, one of the players shouted: "HUH? What in the flying fuck is going on here?"

Suddenly gaining an overwhelming urge to state the complete obvious, Ryan shouted into his mike: "Boss, it's the other half of Lime. It's the Greens. They finally were able to rendezvous with us!"

Ropes fell down to hang from both of the Falcons at once. The first of the Greens to make it down one of them was Nome. Patton walked over to greet the medic in his own way. "Took you goddamn long enough to catch up to us, Medic," he stated. "By the way, I don't recall there being access to Falcons on this playlist. How'd you come by them?"

Nome was, by now, well accustomed to having insults constantly being thrown at him by Patton. All the Greens in Lime, in fact, knew Patton well enough to take his insults as just another version of plain and normal talk. "We discovered an alternate route leading through the higher dimensions of space to get us here, which required us to venture into the Squad Battle playlist," Nome explained. "It is only now that we drew close enough to your location that we were able to cycle matches to reach you. Upon our departure from the Squad Battle playlist, we decided to take some of these along." He pointed up to the Falcons.

The rest of the Greens had by now descended from the Falcons, minus Jess and Mr. Boom, who were piloting either VTOL. At the same moment, the Yellow half of Lime had reached the group, and their armor colors spontaneously changed from blue to yellow as their interactions with the Greens restored their armor's status from Matchmaking colors back to the default of their own universe.

Wren looked at her tacpad for what must have been the hundredth time in the last few hours and reported to everyone else: "We're almost on top of the location in this universe where Sinclair's signal is coming from. Well, I'm not sure 'on top of' is really the right term for something in four spatial dimensions, but I think you all get my point. In any case, it's either this match or the next match that will take us in a close enough proximity that we can make a jump right into where the Reds are holding her and Stone. We are very fortunate that the Greens were able to catch up to us when they did, or we might have had to go in by ourselves."

"I wouldn't really have had a problem with that," said Patton. "Me and the rest of Lemon have taken out some pretty hostile bases by ourselves, isn't that right?"

Hester and Wren shook their heads in agreement. Then Hester stated: "But even so, going in with the Greens will increase our chances of success. After all, we want every advantage for an operation to rescue our own people. Never leave a soldier behind. That's the first rule of training, remember? And since we're in a truce, that it follows for the Greens as well."

Patton shrugged. "Yeah, that's a point. I don't normally think about things that way, but you're right."

"We're all one squadron now," Kenny put in. "Lime Squadron. We work together. So please, no more of this 'we're better then you' bullshit, okay?"

Patton snorted. "Yeah, fine, whatever."

"_Okay, who are you people and just what in the hell is going on here?"_

Lime looked to their side to find all four members of the red colored team staring at them.

The player who had spoken approached Lime slowly. "You're all hackers! It's so obvious! I mean, what the hell are _we_ supposed to think?" He motioned to himself and his other teammates. "So what is this, then? How did you glitch in two Falcons and put in the rappelling down effect when you got off them? Hackers disgust me. But with you guys, I have to say, I'm actually a little impressed."

To Patton, Nome enquired: "The opposing team for this match, may I assume?"

Patton nodded. "We've been kicking their asses so hard that one of them actually broke down and started screaming for awhile." He was mentioning to the player who had looked at their K-D spread a few minutes back.

"Oh yeah?" one of the players shouted. "We'll then it's time to turn this game around!" He turned to the rest of the red colored team. "Let's get ourselves some hackers!" They all readied their hammers.

Hester and Wren rolled out and clubbed the players into oblivion before they had a chance to do anything. Their bodies flew all over the arena. And of course, the players respawned on their side of the arena about three seconds later. At once, the four of them turned to face Lime. The player who had spoken before began switching between his weapons quickly and repetitively, moving his arms in a back and forth motion while a hammer and energy sword alternated appearance in his hands, as though someone were flipping some kind of switch back and forth that affected which weapon was currently in existence. "Errrrrrrr," he growled. "We're gonna get you! You will fear us, hacker people! By the end of this game, we will have pwned you all so hard you'll be able to…" He thought for a moment. "Fuck, I can't think of way to finish that. Dammit! Well...then…prepare to get pwned!"

The other three teammates cheered in agreement. They also readied their preferred weapons, though they did not undergo the repetitive warm-up motions that the first player had. They geared up and seemed as though they were about to make another charge attempt…when all of a sudden one of them stopped and asked: "Hey guys, where's that noise coming from?"

Now that it had been mentioned, Lime could also hear this noise. It was a subtle and steady roar, but getting louder. It sounded almost like…a battle cry! The four players turned to the wall of the arena and also noticed some kind of grating sound. Looking up, they discovered that this new noise was coming from the very top of the arena wall they were standing next to. The top of it was sliding sideways, and the noise was the sound of its edges rubbing against the adjoining walls of the arena. The bottom of the wall, however, remained in place. Which could only mean…it was falling over! The top of the wall accelerated downwards, and the players did not have any time to react before it had collided with the floor, creating a gigantic _whoosh _of displaced air and a SPLAT that ended the red colored team. On cue, Lime's heads-up displays informed them that the players had lost their connection with the game.

Then came the moment where the source of the battle cry revealed itself, for no sooner had the wall come in contact with the floor then several dozen soldiers in red colored armor climbed atop it and began running over it, towards Lime. These soldiers were different from the players: though their actual permutations might have been similar, they also possessed high-tech gear of specializations which no player on in the Matchmaking universe had ever been seen wearing. There was no doubt about it: these soldiers belonged to the actual Red Army. Behind them, in the air, could be seen a spherical glimmer of something, which Lime's trained eyes knew was an interdimensional portal. Hordes of Red soldiers were pouring out of it.

"Vincent's forces have found us!" Hester exclaimed.

Lime attempted to find cover, but since the map was little more than a box with no ceiling, this was made impossible. As if to make matters worse, something else could now be seen coming over the fallen wall: a Scorpion-Class Main Battle Tank. The fallen wall groaned as the tank rolled right over it.

"Hit the deck!" Ryan shouted as the tank loosed a shot from its cannon. Lime reflexively fell to the floor to evade any incoming projectile from the tank. However, Lime's Falcons had the real cause for worry. Jess and Mr. Boom flung open their cockpits and dove out just before the Falcons both exploded into flame. Jess groaned as she hit the floor, and Mr. Boom looked as though he was thinking about doing so, but fortunately neither of them seemed as though they were hurt.

Then the tank loosed a third shot, which impacted the arenas opposite wall and caused the whole place to vibrate. Yet strangely, it didn't seem to have been directed at any member of Lime. The army of Reds formed a line and pointed all of their weapons at the members of Lime Squadron, who were still lying on the ground.

"Slide over your weapons and come with us," boomed a voice through a loudspeaker. Tracing the reverberations of the sound, Hester realized it was coming from the tank driver, whose cockpit must have been equipped with a voice amplifier. "You are surrounded. There is no escape. You are our prisoners."

Patton shouted back "Oh yeah?"

As if to answer Patton's comment, another Falcon, this one piloted by Red soldiers, flew over the center of the arena. There were soldiers in the passenger compartment, each one equipped with a laser-sighted sniper rifle. The beams played traces over the floor of the arena, alternating between the various different members of Lime.

"What now, sis?" Wren asked Hester.

"Don't worry, we'll find a way out of this," Patton answered for her.

"Actually, I'm not so sure we will," said Hester.

"What do you mean?" Patton asked.

"She's right," said Kevin to Patton.

"What're you talking about, Green?" Patton shouted back at him.

"Just look around you!" Kevin exclaimed. "We lost our air superiority. They now have it. We are surrounded by enemy infantry. There is a tank pointing its cannon at us. And they have snipers with their aim perfectly trained on us! How can we possibly come back from this?"

Patton grunted as he realized that the Green private was correct.

"I will not ask you again!" the tank driver shouted. "Slide over your weapons. If you do not do so within the next ten seconds, we will open fire. And I guarantee you, you will _not_ come back from it!"

"Boss?" Ryan asked Patton sadly. "I think we gotta."

Patton exhaled. "Yeah, you're right."

"Very well then," said Hester. "Everyone, slide your weapons over to them!"

Each member of Lime Squadron did as they were told, reaching out to grab their weapons in ways that they made sure the Reds could see, and then sending them sliding across the floor towards the Red soldiers. Patton, however, gave them his assault rifle in place of his main weapon, making sure to keep Lucy hidden underneath his chest plate. No matter how in jeopardy his life was, he would NEVER give up Lucy!

The Reds collected the weapons sent their way almost instantly, and the weapons disappeared into the ordered crowd of Reds as though they had never even existed. "Now, stand up!" the tank driver ordered. As Lime Squadron slowly got to their feat, the tank driver shouted "I said, _stand up!_" and a tungsten shell sailed over Ryan's head and into the arenas far wall. Lime got to their feet a bit faster. As he stood upright, Patton took care to shift Lucy behind his back and tried to wedge the shotgun underneath the shoulder depression next to the reactor on his armors back face, so that it could not be seen by the Reds.

Once every member of Lime Squadron was on their feet, the army of Reds stood aside to make a path leading to the interdimensional portal waiting outside the arena. "Walk towards the portal," the tank driver ordered. Lime Squadron began to comply.

Walking up to Patton and Hester, Ryan whispered: "How in the hell did Vincent find us?"

Hester just shook her head.

"This sucks!" Wren exclaimed.

The tank driver was inching the tank slowly behind the prisoners to keep them moving. "For your information," he said smugly as he drove, "we have sensors set up on all maps closest to our fortress, so we can see any foe coming from a long ways off. We had this map set up just for you, in fact. A decent little trap that you all just wonderfully walked straight into."

Patton growled. "What about Stone and Sinclair?" he asked the tank driver.

"Oh, don't worry," the tank driver replied. "You'll be seeing them soon enough." He then chuckled.

Patton was tempted to lunge for the tank, yank open the cockpit, take out Lucy, and fire a shell up the tank driver's ass before he knew what was happening. But then he got a hold of himself and remembered that there were about a hundred weapons trained on him at the moment. Which meant that the only thing he could do for now was head into the portal and hope for the best.

The portal beckoned as the members of Lime Squadron stepped into it, single file. To what fate, they could only guess.


	16. Strongeheim

16 - STRONGEHEIM

Hearts was drawn into the comm room by the bleeping of one of the consoles on the edges of the room. He approached it and called up the monitor feed showing info about the alarm. Hearing footsteps behind him, he noticed that Deryn had followed him into the room, also investigating the bleeping alarm. Deryn fell into position over Hearts' shoulder as the monitor came alive.

The screen showed that the capitol ship of Hathrow Vorennius, the _Avant Garde_, had descended from the fringes of XBOXL1Vs gravity well and was now holding position just above geosynchronous orbit. By reference of the planet's surface, it was above the battle scarred hemisphere, almost perfectly centered above the continent that Command believed the Orange Army had taken residence upon.

"Vorennius wouldn't come this far out of hiding unless it was something damn important," said Deryn. "He's too smart for that."

"Do you think we should notify Command?" Hearts asked.

"I'm sure they already know by now," Deryn answered. "They'reon the other side of the planet right now though, and the _Avant Garde_ is still close enough to the edges of XBOXL1Vs gravity well that it would be able to flee if Command sent any ships after it."

"Damn," Hearts commented, knowing from experience that Deryn was right. "But even so, I gotta wonder exactly what's caused Vorennius to poke his helmet out of his hidey hole, so to speak."

"I spoke with Command an hour ago," said Deryn. "And they said they're making progress on figuring out a way to get us on the _Avant Garde_. So hopefully it won't be too long before we get to find out the answer to that question ourselves."

"Can't wait."

* * *

A fleet of two hundred dropships sailed further inland as the Purples continued their invasion of the Orange continent. Vorennius watched from the holographic console in the command dome on the _Avant Garde_. Many of the orange colored sections of the overhead map of the continent had turned from their default color (orange) to purple, a sure sign that the invasion was taking hold of the region. The purple sections of the continent traced out a thick pointed line of advancement…leading straight towards the city of Strongeheim, the capitol of the Orange Army. Many cities and bases had fallen in the last couple of hours, all of them unable to stop the tide of Purples. Soon the capitol would fall as well. Victory was near; Vorennius could feel it in his bones.

He suspected and highly anticipated that there would be an enemy defense force stationed at the field just outside of Strongeheim, the Orange Army's last attempt at defending their capitol. As his own forces neared their objective, he could see from the overhead map that he was correct in this calculation. The entire city of Strongeheim was surrounded by a massive energy shield dome, which was impressive considering that the city was more than thirty kilometers in diameter. The power requirements alone must have been astronomical. Through the shield dome, Vorennius could see hundreds of massive towers that were composed of glass and metal. A fleet of hovering civilian transport craft flew among these buildings in ordered lanes. The center of the city contained the tallest cluster of towers. Surely, this was where the Empress was located.

Beyond the city, in the field where Vorennius expected to find resistance, the Orange Army did not provide disappointment. A garrison of vehicles of all types awaited the Purple Army there: Scorpion Tanks, Warthogs of all classes, Mongooses with mounted rocket launcher turrets, Falcons with similar armament, and a hundred dozen infantry were all camped in the field. The final battle of Vorennius' campaign into Orange territory was about to begin.

The Admiral had the dropships deploy his infantry forces several kilometers away from the field. Lock-on artillery was good for stationary targets such as buildings, but vehicles presented a different challenge because they were always mobile and therefore able to outwit manually directed missiles; he would not be able to defeat the enemy forces here with the same tactic. This would be a battle of vehicles versus vehicles.

Not something that was a problem. For this strategy, the Purple forces had imported something else from their other territories on the planet: alien technology.

Several weeks before Vorennius had arrived at this planet, the Purple forces here (then under command of General Gorn Wilhuff) had uncovered underground remains of what seemed to be long-abandoned alien bases. It was still being debated among the scientists who worked in those complexes, but the bases were likely more ancient than any Army's recorded history. And during the long and laborious inspections of these bases, the Purple Army had uncovered many new technologies that had been of excellent help during their battles on this planet.

The Purple Army had suspected, and later confirmed correct, the notion that the Greens had also found such technology. Indeed, the reports of the nicely named "energy sword" being wielded by Green soldiers, as well as "plasma launchers" and "focus rifles" had presented proof of this, with the energy sword's existence being further substantiated by the weapon that Vorennius himself had acquired. Supposedly the Greens were keeping their findings in a top secret weapons facility called Avalanche Base. The Purples had also discovered the schematics for the weapons the Greens had started producing, as well as many other technologies. It was likely that there were more alien installations on the battle scarred side of the planet, which would explain why the Purple Army seemed to be having more success stumbling upon such bases.

But the handheld alien weaponry wasn't the greatest thing the Purples had found in the bases; they also had access to alien vehicles because of them.

For this particular battle, against the forces stationed outside of Strongeheim, the Purples had brought along two types of alien vehicles. The first was a lightly armored hovercraft which had the capability to accelerate to speeds that no human-made vehicle could top, using what was speculated to be a boosted gravity drive. It sported twin automatic plasma guns on its front, which couldn't actually do that much damage against other vehicles, but could be devastating to the infantry forces, and also would provide a good distraction when needed, being capable of indefinite fire and also rather visible due to its indigo coloring. Because of its speed and elusiveness, and the noise its drives made, it had been given the name "Ghost". The second type of alien vehicle was a tank-like mobile mortar cannon. Very massive, very slow, but also very deadly. It could fire off a huge blast of plasma in an arc that, when it reached ground, would deal tremendous damage to anything caught within a ten meter radius of the point of impact and excavate a glowing hole in any material it hit, a useful secondary feature as infantry could move up and use said hole as cover once it had cooled. Vorennius wasn't really sure why, but somehow this vehicle had adopted the name "Wraith". He'd heard one of the mechanics joke that "it was the last thing you saw before you became one," but that hadn't really seemed right. Vorennius had never really bothered to find out, and in any case it was of no consequence. The Wraith was devastating effective no matter its title.

Via the hologram, the Admiral could see that the dropships carrying the alien vehicles had nearly caught up with the main strike force. He ordered them to set down just behind his infantry forces. This was where the Ghosts would come into play; their speed would allow his forces to catch the Orange garrison off guard. The Admiral waited for the designated infantry to mount into the arrangement of Ghosts, then gave the attack order.

The Ghost platoon soared into action. A fiery purple streak lit up the landscape as the line of alien engineered vehicles sped towards the Orange garrison. Though several kilometers separated them, it was less than a minute before the Ghosts reached their target. Either the Oranges didn't see the Ghosts coming, or more likely they just didn't know what to expect. For whatever reason, they were unprepared when the Ghosts reached them. Then they zoomed right past the front lines, heading right for the city before any of the Oranges could react, smashing aside quite a few unfortunate enemy soldiers as they did.

It was actually quite remarkable how quickly order could dissolve into chaos. Their first priority being to keep safe the city, the Orange garrison was forced to decompose its ordered lines in order to deal with the Ghosts, whom they falsely believed were trying to besiege the city. Vorennius had specifically ordered the Ghosts to make for the city as though they intended to bypass the shield, even though this was beyond a Ghost's capability. What mattered was that the enemy_ thought_ that the city was in danger. And now that the Orange garrison had no front line, it was time to send in the Wraiths.

With the Ghosts forcing the Orange forces into a disordered mess, none of the enemy had any time to notice a rather suspicious line of dark blue objects slowly inching their way towards them. The Wraiths took up a semicircular perimeter around the battlefield and took time to aim into the mass of scurrying Oranges. Then the sky began to rain with plasma.

The Ghosts were in little danger of being hit because each Ghost pilot's heads-up display was keyed in with the designated target locations of the Wraiths, so they always knew exactly where a mortar blast was about to land and could swerve easily out of the way long before impact. The same was not true for the Oranges. Not only did they not expect to be impacted with plasma (having still not noticed the Wraiths) but they had no definite way of dodging the plasma even when it did begin to hit the ground. Orange casualties began to pile up as the plasma hail fell. Explosions lit up the battlefield like fireworks that had forgotten to be launched**, **and the ground began to look like the surface of an airless moon.

Vorennius watched the counter on one of the hologram screens, showing the number of the enemy still remaining. It was dropping significantly. But after only a few minutes, the Oranges began to catch on to what was happening. Several Orange platoons began to make for the boundaries of the battlefield, where the Wraiths were stationed, because they apparently had realized that the alien inventions were the reason their army was getting devastated. Vorennius ordered his infantry forces to take position in front of the Wraiths and use their missile launchers to take down the oncoming vehicles. Lock-on missiles weren't normally accustomed to taking out targets moving so fast, but because the oncoming enemy was heading for them _in a straight line_, the job was made quite a bit easier. Yet again the enemy failed to see the Admiral's counter tactic before it was too late, and yet again the Orange Army's plans ended in failure. The platoons heading for the Wraiths never made it to their destinations, instead erupting into several series of fireballs along the way as they ran straight into the missiles fired at them.

Meanwhile, the Wraiths had continued to fire away at the Orange forces still within the battlefield, and the casualties there on the Orange end had really piled up. Less than fifty percent of the original population of the Orange garrison now remained, according to the hologram counter. And with the renegade platoon's attempt foiled, there was no way for the enemy to get out of this deathtrap. Several more minutes ticked by as the enemy garrison (if, at this point, it could still even be called that) slowly dwindled in number. What the Wraiths did not kill by random firing, the Ghosts took out with their automated plasma turrets. A single Ghost's energy cannon was weak against a human-made vehicle's armor. But when several Ghosts fired upon the same target, it was simply too much, and the armor melted off from the heat. There was no escape for the Oranges. Soon came the time when the Orange forces became too few in number to consider a threat anymore. The last defense of Strongeheim (aside from the shield dome) was gone.

The time had come to take the city.

Several Ghosts approached the edges of the shield dome and placed a series of devices along its perimeter. These devices were tiny targeting locators that would allow the _Avant Garde_ to target the city from high orbit. Once all of the targeting locators had been placed, the _Avant Garde's_ computer quickly triangulated their positions in order to calculate the exact center of Strongeheim. Vorennius queued up the _Avant Garde's_ Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. As ordered, all Purple ground forces began making their way as far from the city as possible at their highest possible speed, the Ghosts pausing just long enough for several allies to hop on each one, riding on the hood or hanging off of the sides with their magnetic grapples. Then they sped off into the distance, knowing full well what was coming for the city.

Often abbreviated simply as MAC, the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon was a coilgun that used an extremely powerful electromagnetic field to accelerate a metal slug to high velocities. All other armies used cannons that could fire 600 kiloton projectiles several tens of kilometers per second, but each ship could only house at most two slugs because of their mass and size. The MAC gun on the Avant Garde, however, worked a little bit differently. The slugs it used were only 600 kilograms in mass, much smaller than anything else use. This might seem puny at the outset, but when fired at nearly one percent the speed of light, they suddenly turned into colossal harbingers of destruction, possessing all the kinetic energy of a multi-kiloton projectile due to their (frankly insane) speed. And best of all, because each slug had so little mass, that meant that Purple ships could carry hundreds of MAC gun projectiles, instead of just two.

The computer informed Vorennius that the _Avant Garde's_ MAC gun had finished charging. Checking to make sure that the Orange capitol city had been properly targeted, the Admiral hit the icon to fire the cannon. The ship vibrated slightly as the MAC gun discharged its slug, and the _Avant Garde_ gained a small amount of reverse momentum. Vorennius pulled up the screen showing the overhead view of the city. From 40 megameters above the planet's surface, it would take the slug about thirteen seconds to reach the city. As predicted, the slug impacted Strongeheim as the timer next to the clock ticked off its thirteenth increment.

The entire battlefield shook madly and the sight of the city was lost in a mushroom cloud of flame as the kinetic energy of the slug was converted into thermonuclear energy upon impact with the shield dome. It took several moments for the fire and smoke to clear, but once it had, the pale blue glow of the dome shield could be seen through the dark clouds. The city's shield had withstood the blast. Which was perfectly fine, because Vorennius had expected this, and had one hundred more slugs just like the first one on queue. He had the computer ready the next slug and start the MAC gun recharging.

An incoming message signal sounded. The Admiral didn't need to look at the ident details to know who it was. An orange clad soldier wearing a katana on her back and a samurai styled helmet appeared before him on the holographic console. "Empress, we meet again," Vorennius greeted.

"So it's finally come to this, has it?" the Empress asked angrily.

"You know what my forces have come for, Empress", Vorennius answered. "You do have the power to end this before your capitol is destroyed. It is a rather attractive looking place, I don't particularly wish to level it if I don't have to. Not to mention that it is the last bastion of your Army."

"The quantum manipulator can be used for nothing but terror and destruction!" the Empress protested. "I would have destroyed it, but I don't have the proper technology to do so."

The Admiral stared at her coldly through his visor.

"While my army was outside of this universe…we learned things…things about our existence…" She was clearly having trouble explaining, and also trying hard to decide what should be explained to her enemy without giving away anything that could be used against them.

Vorennius was normally extremely patient, but even his resolve could eventually wear down. _The Avant Garde_ fired a second MAC round.

The Empress was still babbling incoherently about being in the other dimensions, when the slug reached her city. The camera shook violently, and the lighting coming through the windows of the building in which the Empress was standing suddenly changed to a fiery red as another mushroom cloud arose outside the city's shield dome. The Empress seemed about to lose her feet, but then she managed to grab onto something off camera and righted herself just as the earthquake from the MAC impact subsided. Also from off camera, a male voice shouted: "Empress, the shield is almost gone. The city cannot take another hit!"

The Empress slammed her fist through an ornately decorated wall. "Damn you, Vorennius!" she shouted. "Damn you and your Army! You have no idea what you're doing, who you're really serving, or to what end!"

"And you do?" Vorennius asked with amusement. "The goal of my presence on this planet is, and has always been, to find and destroy the Green capitol, Centerpoint City. This campaign into your territory is only one more means to accomplish that end, so that I may forge a necessary alliance with another entity. Seeing as your Army is facing oblivion at my hand, you deserve to know at least that much information. But no more."

"But in the process you will unleash something far more terrible than you can imagine!" the Empress shouted at him.

Vorennius chuckled subtly. "Forgive me, but the desperation in your voice makes it far too difficult for me to believe you. Your determination to hold onto possession of the quantum manipulator is admirable, though terribly misguided. If you do not give the quantum manipulator to me willingly then I fear I will have no choice but to destroy your precious city and take it from the ruins."

"You don't understand!" said the Empress. "I'm protecting it. Guarding it. So that it does not fall into the wrong hands."

"The wrong hands?" Vorennius asked. "You don't mean mine, I hope. Because that would mean that you're about to doom your city, as well as your Army's future, over this one device."

"I have no intention of dooming my Army," the Empress countered. "But there are things at stake with the quantum manipulator that you are simply not aware." She looked straight at the Admiral's visor. "The Old World did exist, Vorennius. It is true."

Vorennius stopped in mid-thought and looked straight at the holographic image of the Empress Owara Selina.

_The Old World._

"How do you know of this," he demanded. "Tell me!"

"I was trying to tell you," said the Empress. "My Army learned many things during its journey through the other universes. This fact was one of them."

"I believed that knowledge of the Old World was restricted to my Army," Vorennius thought aloud, actually feeling shock for the first time in a long time. "Yet what you tell me must be true; how else could you know of the Old World?"

_Yet the objective is still the same._

Vorennius had to change subjects, even though he would have loved to continue the current conversation. "Empress…the quantum manipulator, please. I don't want to have to destroy your city, believe me. You know that I will."

The Empress slumped in defeat. Turning to someone off camera, she said: "Take the manipulator, put it into a transport, and send it outside the shield wall."

"Empress?" another voice responded.

"_I said do it!_" Selina shouted. "Or do you want our capitol destroyed, and us with it!" She then turned back to the camera. "Very well, Admiral," she confessed through gritted teeth. "You may have your quantum manipulator. I can only hope that what I have told you about my Army's journey outside of this universe, and about the Old World, will make you decide not to use the manipulator."

"It is not I who will use it," Vorennius corrected. "Necessary alliances, don't forget."

"It's the Reds, isn't it?" the Empress asked. "Who else could it be? You're doing this to ally with them. Vorennius, for all your tactical genius, you are still such a _fool_."

Meanwhile, the Admiral had been watching the overhead view of the battlefield. A science team was inspecting the contents of the transport that had just come out from the shield dome. They gave the confirmation signal that it indeed contained the quantum manipulator. Which meant that the mission was complete: the Purple Army had managed to collect what it came for. The Admiral now directed his attention back to the Empress.

"_A fool_, did you just call me? When Centerpoint City is destroyed, and the territories that the Green Army has stolen from my people are rightfully reclaimed, and the Purple Army has regained its former glory, then we will see who is the genius and who is the fool. Empress, I will allow your Army to continue to exist for now, only because you have complied with my demands and have not proven to be a significant threat to my plans as of yet. But if this should ever change, then my Army will return, and yours will be wiped from the face of existence. You are bold to call me a fool, when I have your people surviving at my whim like an insect under my raised boot." He cut the transmission.

To the science team inspecting the quantum manipulator, he ordered: "Have the quantum manipulator brought to the _Avant Garde_ immediately." As soon as the lead scientist nodded, the Admiral gave the order for all of his forces to vacate the Orange continent, his campaign there having finally reached its end. As stepped away from the holographic console, it dimmed and faded into darkness.

A voice called out from the shadows of the command dome. "Shall I inform Vincent that we have acquired the quantum manipulator?" Nezilus Thane slowly stepped towards the center of the expansive room.

Vorennius shook his head. "No, not yet."

"You don't want Vincent to know that we are able to uphold the end of the bargain we arranged with him?"

"That is correct," said Vorennius. "There was something the Empress said to me." He subconsciously stared out at the stars, deep in thought. "She knew about the Old World. In the same conversation, she also warned me that the quantum manipulator is really used to…unleash something dark and terrible. I don't quite know what she meant by that. But she knows about the Old World, which is the most closely guarded secret of _our_ Army."

"You think Vincent is up to something," Thane postulated.

"I've known that the fusion coil has been up to something ever since we first spoke," said Vorennius. "He is both emotionally and psychologically unstable. Which is perfect for deception, if something else is using the coil to achieve its own ends. So I'm not going to let Vincent know that I have his device, not until I know more about what the coil intends to do with it. 'Destroy the universe', the coil says. I doubt that, but I will see the intentions that hide under his false truths before I give him the power of the quantum manipulator."


	17. The Red Throne

17 – THE RED THRONE

"Well, this operation is getting off to a hell of a start." Kenny stared out at the expanse of floating metal fortress before him. He was standing on a giant square platform, also floating in the air. Behind him were the other members of Lime Squadron. The Reds had a very peculiar way of locking away their prisoners: no cage, hardly even any walls except the floor. Lime had simply been teleported to this platform and left here.

Though of course, it _was_ a prison. Perhaps more than a hundred meters below the platform was an expanse of sea, endless in all directions except for a mountainous island in the distance. Should anyone jump off, then even if they did somehow manage to survive the fall, they would still drown because SPARTAN armor was too heavy to allow for the possibility of swimming. And if they jumped without their armor then they would be killed on impact with the water's surface. Thus, a floating platform was a very convenient prison: stupidly simple design and no possibility of escape, unless the prisoners could fly.

Kenny sighed. It was times like these when he really needed his trusty jet pack. He had meant to take it with him when he left the Halothrii Wilderness, except that the thing was just so damn heavy and really awkward to attach to the back of his armor. Although, even if he had brought the jet pack with him, the Reds would probably have confiscated it anyways, just like they had taken all of Lime's weapons at the time of their capture.

Kenny glanced around. The other members of Lime were either lying on the ground or sitting down. They had been here for probably a couple of hours now, so it was just a waste of energy to stand at this point. The only reason Kenny was doing it was just so that he could temporarily get a better view of the fortress and the sea. He sat down.

"This whole thing sucks," a voice said off to Kenny's right. He looked in that direction and found Skope, staring up at the sun.

"I know you think all of this's your fault," said Kenny. "But it's not."

Skope looked over at the weapons specialist. "Oh?"

"I mean, how could you have known that fusion coils are sentient?" Kenny explained. "They had never spoken our language before, or given any other indication of intelligence. It could've been anyone who sniped that particular pile."

"Yeah," said Skope. "But it was me." He was still staring straight up at the sun.

"Dammit!" a voice exclaimed from behind them. It was Jess. She was cradling her iPod in one hand and tapping its screen frantically with the other. "No, no, no!" she exclaimed. When she realized everyone else was staring at her, she said: "It just ran out of juice." Sadly, she set in it in its place on her utility belt.

There was silence for a couple of minutes. Then Ryan decided to try to break the marathon of quiet. "So, anyone seen any good movies lately?" No one immediately answered. Ryan looked at Kevin, who was sitting off to his left.

Kevin shook his head. "With everything that's happened in the last week…no, not really. Since I got here, I've nearly died, been ordered to strip naked in front of an enemy base, then gone rouge, been captured, escaped, and _finally_, I participated in the Battle of Yellow Command like the rest of you guys. Point is, I haven't had a single minute of free time since I was stationed at the Wilderness."

"I mostly just listen to music videos on my iPod," said Jess. "And now that it's out of battery power, I can't even do that. But as movies go, the answer is no."

"Me neither," said Kenny.

"I did see something about twelve point two days ago," said Nome. "It was a live action movie of Shakespeare's play Othello. The acting was professional, but I did not feel as though the movie captured the proper atmosphere nor brought about the exact _feel_ of what Shakespeare intended. Sadly, it is difficult to find that many good movies done of Shakespeare's plays. Ah, but there was one good movie I saw which was for…" He trailed off as he realized that no one was paying him any attention. Wren seemed about to clap as soon as the Medic stopped talking, but managed to stop herself.

"Anyways," said Ryan, "The reason I brought up the subject of movies is that, a few days ago, I was doing my weekly re-watch of the feature length premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which bears the same name as the series-"

"Oh God, Hobar!" Patton exclaimed. "_Really?_ You're going to bring this up now? Even when we aren't prisoners of war, I still can't free myself from your ranting about that stupid series."

"Okay, geez!" Ryan exclaimed. "We can talk about something else."

Suddenly Skope got up from the ground, into a sitting position. "Wait, you're into Star Wars?" he asked Ryan.

Ryan nodded. "Hell yeah!"

"So am I!" said Skope. "I've got basically all the expanded universe novels."

"For real?" Ryan asked. "That's awesome!"

Patton groaned and buried his helmet in his hands in a vain attempt to tune out the conversation.

Skope and Ryan were getting deep into their conversation about Star Wars when suddenly Hester interrupted with: "Everyone, stop and listen. I think I hear something." Skope and Ryan stopped talking and started listening, along with everyone else. Off in the distance, from the Reds fortress, was the sound of rotors. And sure enough, a Falcon was on its way over to their platform. The members of Lime Squadron got up off their feet as it approached.

Patton readied his shotgun. As soon as the Falcon got in close, he would whip Lucy out of hiding and take out all the Reds on the VTOL before they knew what was happening. He waited for the Falcon to reach their platform. After another moment, the aircraft finally reached the platform, hovering over it and holding position. But it didn't lower down.

One of the soldiers in the VTOL called through a voice amplifier: "Christopher Skope, stand up." A rope ladder dangled down from the aircraft.

Seeing no reason why he should comply, Skope remained sitting. He hoped that they didn't know which member of Lime he was. He guessed wrong. Three sniper beams traced their way onto his armor.

"I will not ask you again," said the person through the voice amplifier. "Stand up and climb up the rope."

Now realizing that he didn't have a choice, Skope got up. The other members of Lime watched with concern as he made for the rope ladder.

Patton put Lucy back in her hiding place, in the armor niche under his arm. _Damn. If only the VTOL would just come down to our level! I can't very well surprise them if I have to go up that ladder._

As soon as Skope had climbed the rope ladder up to the VTOL, the Red soldiers grabbed him and dragged him inside. Then the passenger compartment closed its doors and the aircraft took off back towards the fortress. As the VTOL traveled through the air, Skope was forced to stand in the passenger's compartment, with about six guns pointed at him. Given how small the compartment was, Skope wasn't exactly sure where some of the guns were coming from. "Wow, you really do know how to pack yourselves into tight spaces," he called out to the Reds in as fun a manner as he could manage. The Reds did not respond, and instead stared at him as though he was some kind of idiot.

It wasn't long before the Falcon reached its destination. It decelerated sharply, causing Skope to almost fall over. The many guns pointed at him were enough to keep him from doing so, however. The passenger door was opened again and the rope ladder was thrown out again. "Down," the Falcon's pilot instructed.

Skope did as ordered, still with no real choice. Looking around as he descended, he realized that he was now over the approximate center of the fortress. Directly below him was an elaborately decorated platform which looked to begin a very long walkway that had just as much pomp as the area he was climbing down towards. Light orbs of many different colors floated all over the platform. They reminded him of the lights he had seen in the forest at the center of the Swirling Abyss of Absentmindedness. Unlike those lights, however, these ones did not move through the air or change in size. They just existed in whatever location they had been set upon, as though they were lamps of some kind.

Several Red soldiers had popped up behind Skope while he had been admiring the lights. As directed, Skope made for the long walkway. Looking down the extensive and elaborate passage, Skope could see that the walkway was covered with many more of the same lights as the platform. Several of them let off a subtle burst of light as he passed them, though Skope did not know what his was supposed to mean, if anything at all. At the end of the walkway, the Green sniper finally came to his destination.

A gigantic durasteel throne rose up before him on large set of stairs. The throne was set high enough that it was clearly able to watch over the entirety of the fortress. And sitting upon it was none other than the self proclaimed leader of the Red Army, Vincent the fusion coil. He lounged upon the hard and sharp durasteel throne as only a fusion coil could.

The Red soldiers standing behind Skope marched him up to the dais before the throne. Vincent stared at Skope coldly (he assumed) as the Red soldiers kicked their prisoner in the shins, forcing him to keel before the fusion coil. Vincent continued to watch Skope for what seemed like nearly a minute. Silence seemed omnipresent. That was when Vincent rose from his throne, levitating with the same power that he had shown during the Battle of Yellow Command.

"My waiting is finally over," the coil gloated as he floated around Skope in a circle, like some peculiar shark. "The human who destroyed my pile…those poor innocent coils…that person is now, at long last, within my grasp."

"I've told you before, I'm sorry," said Skope softly. The Red soldiers kicked him again. Skope yelled in pain, and they kicked him a second time.

"Did I give you permission to speak, murderer?" Vincent yelled. He sighed. "You humans never know what's good for you. I build a weapon that can destroy this universe, and you all come running _towards_ it. Then I take the first two of you prisoner, force them to do labor, and all they do is complain, like they think it will do them any good. And finally, I mention that you are my inspiration, my motive, for trying to destroy this universe, because I HATE you so much. And what do you do? You bring yourself before me!" Vincent laughed.

"Wait, what was that second part?" Skope asked. "About taking the first two of us prisoner? Do you mean Clair and Amber?"

The Red soldiers kicked Skope again. "Silence!" Vincent shouted. "I am the one talking, human! Now, as I was saying-" He suddenly stopped himself, as though a thought had occurred to him. "Human, I need to show you something." He nodded to the guards. "Bring him up here." The guards hoisted Skope onto his feet and marched him over to one edge of the dais, which was to the side of Vincent's throne. "Look there," said Vincent. Skope at first had no idea what Vincent was talking about, since it was impossible for someone with no limbs to point. But after staring down at the region below him, he realized exactly what the fusion coil wanted to bring to his attention. On a walkway off in the distance, he could see two soldiers in yellow colored armor standing next to a huge durasteel block. They looked to be having a conversation with each other. They were being guarded by two Red soldiers, who were standing off to the side.

Vincent growled for some reason, as soon as he saw the durasteel block where it was. "What? _They still haven't moved it yet?_" he exclaimed. "Damn you lazy humans and your limbs which you never make use of! Is it going to take an act of Congress to get them to push that stupid block?"

Skope had no doubt as to who the Yellow soldiers were. "_Clair! Amber!_" he shouted out as loud as he could. One of the guards behind him hit him in the back with the butt of a rifle to make him stop shouting. But the two Yellows on the walkway did turn to look at him.

"The reason I'm showing them to you," said Vincent to Skope, "Is because I want the last thing you ever think about to be the fact that you failed to rescue them. I want you to feel the pain of that failure, just like the pain I have felt ever since I watched my pile explode."

"Hey, isn't that one Yellow supposed to be the person who put a cap in this guy's ass?" one of the Red soldiers asked suddenly while pointing down at Skope.

"Um, what, exactly, is the nature of this interruption?" Vincent asked the soldier.

Skope turned as much as he could manage, to face the soldier. "How the hell do you know about that?" he asked. The butt of a rifle was the only response he got back.

"Do you dare to interrupt me while I am gloating?" Vincent shouted at the soldier.

"I am sorry, my Lord," the soldier said quickly. "I meant nothing by it. It was just…a thought."

"And do you have any other such thoughts that you feel absolutely need to be brought to my attention at the moment?" Vincent asked tersely.

The soldier looked down at the ground. "…No, my Lord…"

Vincent turned his attention back to the walkway and the durasteel block. His sudden exclamation of "What the hell?" was enough to cause Skope to take notice as well. On the walkway, the Yellows had vanished. The two Reds who had been guarding them were lying dead on the ground, their weapons missing. "_They're trying to escape!"_ Vincent hissed.

Without warning, the Reds guarding Skope were assaulted by a series of sniper rounds. Stunned by the bombardment, they fell before they had a chance to do anything. Skope mentally traced the path that the bullets must have taken, which led to the bottom of the stairs. Standing at the end of the decorative walkway…were Clair and Amber! They saw him as well, and came running up to him. "It's good to see you guys!" Skope exclaimed with relief. "How did you break out?"

The two Yellows rushed up the stairs to the dais. As she and Clair reached Skope and helped him off the ground, Amber explained: "We could've broken out any time we wanted. We just didn't have any idea where to go once we did, with this being a floating fortress and all. So we stayed put for the time being. But then we saw that you'd been captured as well, and decided it was time to bust out."

"On the contrary," said a voice from high above them, "your escape attempt ends here!" The three of them looked up to find Vincent floating menacingly in the air above his throne. Clair and Amber jolted in surprise, as they had not expected that they would encounter Vincent. The fusion coil brightened its glow, probably powering up for a fight. "Give yourselves up willingly, and I may not decide to kill you. Though of course, that may not be true for you, Christopher Skope. I have waited too long…"

Vincent was interrupted as a sniper round impacted him and shattered on impact due to his psychic barrier. "If you were thinking of taking us that easily, then think again!" Amber shouted while holding her sniper rifle in the fusion coil's direction.

"Are you really sure we can take him?" Clair asked.

"You fools are all helpless against me," Vincent answered before Amber could. "You couldn't even touch me at Yellow Command, so why do you think you can defeat me here, in my own fortress?"

Clair tossed Skope one of the assault rifles she had taken from the Red soldiers she had blown through. Skope grabbed it out of the air, aimed at Vincent, and fired so that he could get the fusion coil's attention. "Hey, it's me you've been after all this time, so leave them out of it!" The coil turned its attention to the Green sniper.

"No," said Clair to Skope before Vincent could say anything. "We're all in this together. We aren't going to just leave you here with him."

Skope nodded in appreciation. "Thanks."

"_None_ of you will leave this place until I decide it!" Vincent shouted.

Skope, Clair, and Amber stood together in a line facing the fusion coil. "We won't give up without a fight," said Amber.

The ominous light surrounding Vincent now encompassed him completely. "You have all chosen death, then," the fusion coil mused. "_So be it!_" With no further warning, he lunged at the three members of Lime Squadron, and the throne chamber exploded with the chaos of combat.


	18. Hello Sun, Hello Sky

18 – HELLO SUN, HELLO SKY

Ryan was lying on his back and staring up at the sun. Still stranded on the metal platform, he and the other members of Lime Squadron were becoming increasingly bored as time passed. Ever since Skope had been taken, things had just stopped happening conversation wise. Ryan felt himself starting to doze off. But that was when he heard something. As he sat up, he tried to identify the sound. A steady mechanical beat, which meant…rotors again. He up-righted himself sharply. Looking around, he could tell that the sound was no illusion; the other members of Lime Squadron had also taken notice, picking themselves off of their feet.

"I hope they're bringing Skope back," said Kenny.

"They could also be coming to take another one of us," Hester countered.

Patton whipped out Lucy and coked it one fluid motion.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Kevin asked.

"I kept it," said Patton. "Couldn't let the Reds take her." He began to stroke Lucy's barrel slowly.

"Ooookay," said Kevin while watching Patton. He then got close to Mr. Boom and whispered close to his visor: "That guy Patton is really weird."

Patton did hear the Green, but paid no attention to the comment. At this point, he was actually eyeing the Falcon as it approached. _As soon as that Falcon extends its rope ladder, I'm rushing up there and taking the VTOL by force!_

The aircraft finally reached the prison platform. It was interesting to note that, unlike the first time a Falcon had dropped by, there were now no snipers in the passenger's compartment. In fact, as Lime analyzed the Falcon more closely, they realized that the pilot was the only person in the aircraft. And just as Patton expected, as soon as it came to a stop, it let down its rope ladder. "Get in, quick!" said the pilot through a voice amplifier. Patton did not need to be told twice (or even once, for that matter) and was hurrying up the rope ladder as fast as he could. The pilot continued: "Look, I'm here to rescue you. I may be in Red armor, but I'm actually on your side. I'm another prisoner, escaping. And I mean to take you with me."

Patton stopped about two thirds of the way up the ladder. Back on the platform, the other members of Lime looked at each other. Then all of them began rushing for the rope ladder. Patton continued his way up, but more slowly, since the need to hijack the aircraft had (apparently) been nullified.

Patton was, of course, the first person to get into the VTOL. He was followed some seconds later by the other members of Lime Squadron, who piled into the passenger's compartment single file. It was an insanely tight fit, what with nine people trying to make things work in a compartment designed to contain four at maximum. Probably in an attempt to help solve this, the pilot let down the barrier leading into the cockpit. He motioned to Kevin. Kevin wasn't sure why the pilot wanted him specifically to sit in the copilot's seat, since he was actually in the back of the passenger's compartment, but he couldn't complain when invited in. He squeezed his way through the crowd in the passenger's compartment and eventually made his way into the cockpit. Once everyone had set down, the Falcon began to move again.

However, instead of taking them away from the fortress, the Falcon looked as though it was heading for the opposite side of the fortress, and was moving directly over the fortress to do it. "Um, where are we going?" Kevin asked the pilot.

"There's one more prisoner I need to pick up," he said. "Don't worry. Because I'm in Red armor and driving the Falcon, anyone looking at us is going to think that I'm just transporting you to another location. We're perfectly safe." As Lime looked down below them, they could see multitudes of Reds moving along the many walkways of the fortress. But just as the pilot had said they would, they paid little attention to the Falcon as soon as they noticed that its pilot was wearing red colored armor.

The Falcon flew over to another prisoner platform. And just as the pilot had said, one lone soldier was waiting there for him. Jess strained to look at the prisoner as they came closer. "Hey guys…is that…no, that can't be."

Kenny looked over his shoulder. "Who? Hey, you're right, he does look familiar. But wait, he was in the middle of a thermonuclear super-detonation the last time we saw him. How in the fuck is he alive?"

On the platform sat a soldier wearing orange and crimson colored armor. At first glance, he would have appeared to be an Orange solider. But having met him before, the Greens knew better. Skope, Kenny, Jess, and Nome had encountered this person during their first trip through this universe. His name was Fred Oofig. And according to what Oofig had told them, he was a lone wanderer who traveled from place to place through the universes. He had been with the Greens for a short time, but the last time they had seen him had been when he was running around on fire in a room filled with fusion coils. Then there had been the beginnings of a huge explosion, though the Greens hadn't witnessed the actual explosion because they had escaped through a portal the instant just before it went off. Oofig should have been vaporized by the detonation. Yet there he sat on the platform, completely oblivious even to the fact that a Falcon was hovering directly over him.

"Hey, you down there!" Jess shouted down to Oofig.

Oofig shot up straight and noticed that there was a VTOL above him. Then he groaned. "You again? What the hell do you guys want?"

"We're not the Reds," Jess shouted back down. "It's us!"

Fred shifted his focus from the cockpit to the people poking their helmets out of the passenger's compartment. "Oh, you guys! Thank the universe!" Then he paused. "Wait…if it's you, then why is your Falcon being driven by a Red?"

"He's in disguise," Kenny answered as he tossed down the rope ladder. "Look, I don't know how much time we have before the real Reds figure out that something's up. So you need to get on now. We still have to find three other people before we can leave-"

"What?" the pilot objected from the cockpit. "The hell are you talking about?"

Patton turned in the direction of the cockpit. "Oh, yeah. Forgot to mention this before. We still have to find Stone, Sinclair, and Skope. Three members of ours who were taken by the Reds before you came. And don't think for one second that we're leaving without them."

The pilot exhaled in frustration. "You're all playing a dangerous game here. I was damn lucky enough to get this armor and this Falcon. All it will take is one small thing to go wrong in order to kibosh our escape attempt for good. The last thing we need to do right now is push our luck!"

"You seem to be forgetting that we outnumber you on this Falcon by nine to one," Hester said sternly to the pilot.

"Ten," said Oofig as he finished climbing up the role ladder.

"_Fucking dammit!"_ the pilot cursed under his breath. Then he shouted back: "Okay then, where to? If we're going to do this, it's going to be as quickly as possible."

"We don't know," said Wren.

"You're joking," seethed the pilot.

"Based upon the apparent vector of their departure from our platform, I would guess that they were taken to the very center of the fortress," said Nome.

"Is that really the best you know about where they are?" the pilot asked, annoyance oozing into his voice.

"Afraid so," said Wren while looking at her tacpad to check Nome's theory.

The sound of the pilot slamming his fist onto the Falcon's control console could he heard. "So, we are finally free to leave this place, but instead of doing that, you would have us go back, to the very center of the fortress, which has the highest concentration of Reds, to rescue people that you don't even really know where they are. Is that correct?"

"I think that about sums it up," Hester confirmed.

The pilot sat staring out the cockpit window for a moment. "Are you going to drive this Falcon?" Patton asked in false politeness. "Or am I going to have to drive it for you?"

The pilot exhaled again. Then the Falcon turned towards the center of the fortress. From the copilot's seat, Kevin could hear the subtle tones of the pilot swearing under this breath. He couldn't help but feel as though he recognized that voice from somewhere.

As the Falcon proceeded along its journey, Fred stared out at the city through the open door in the passenger's compartment. The doors had been closed most of the way (because, with eight people in that small compartment, it was all too easy for someone to accidentally tumble out) but the door on Fred's side was ajar so that they could make note of where they were and also make sure that the pilot wasn't trying to pull anything. Meanwhile, Fred was enjoying the view. The sun of this strange world was now directly overhead, and its rays beamed down to reflect off of the durasteel walls of the fortress far below.

Jess had some questions for Oofig, so she got as close to him as she could through the squished crowd. "So, how, exactly, are you still alive?" she asked. "The last time we saw, you, it looked like you were surrounded by an explosive chain reaction of fusion coils."

Fred nodded. "I'm not exactly sure myself how I survived. I remember running around on fire, and then there was this huge explosion, and the next thing I knew I was lying on the ground, with a crater in front of me where the tower used to be, and I was surrounded by a bunch of Red soldiers who were all very angry. And then I ended up here."

"Uh-huh," said Jess while nodding her head slowly.

"It's such a nice day," Fred commented contentedly as he went back to staring out the door in his side of the compartment.

"Um, I guess…" said Ryan indifferently from behind him.

Fred continued looking out at the fortress for a moment, then turned back to Ryan and Jess. "And is it really hot, or is it just me?"

"I think it's just you," said Ryan.

"No seriously, guys. It's getting really hot in here."

"What are you talking about?" asked Jess.

"Mmmmm," Nome said informatively while checking something on his heads-up display. "Actually, the temperature in this compartment is near the same as it was when we departed from your platform. I do not know why you are feeling the way you are."

"Huh, that's strange," said Fred. "Because I'm feeling, like, _really_ hot right now."

"Sucks to be you, then, I guess," said a bored Patton.

"Are you sure the AC isn't on?" Fred asked.

"This bird doesn't have an AC," said the pilot. "Its interior was designed to be constantly exposed to the outside. There's no point for the Reds to have put one in."

"Y'know, its times like these that I really wanna say hi to the sun," said Fred. "It just feels good to acknowledge things that radiate, am I right?"

Everyone else in the compartment just stared at Oofig.

Fred turned back to the ajar door. "Hello sun, hello sky. Good to see you." He stopped. "I'm still feeling really hot though. Come to think of it, I'm feeling _extremely_ hot. Just, ridiculously hot. Totally cooking right now."

Patton opened his mouth to tell the orange-crimson clad soldier that he could shut up right about now, when without warning Fred's armor layer burst into flame and the poor soldier began yelling at the top of his lungs.

"_Oh my God I'm on FIRE. AHHHHH!_" he screamed while patting himself all over in vain to get the flames put out.

Once Fred ignited, it did not take long for everything to go metaphorically south. Fred was now attempting to race back and forth in the compartment in frenzy. But with seven other people also in that same compartment, this task was made very difficult. Add to this the fact that everyone else was now in the process of freaking out (what with being trapped in a small space with rapidly spreading fire and all), and Lime had what could officially be considered a total catastrophe.

"What the hell is going on back there?" the pilot shouted. He looked back and realized that he latter half of the aircraft he was driving was aflame. "Oh, fuck!" The Falcon began to veer sharply off in an unintended direction, as the pilot had temporarily forgotten that he was supposed to be controlling it.

"I'll go back there!" Kevin said quickly.

"No!" the pilot shouted as he grabbed Kevin's arm. "You're staying right here with me!"

"What?" Kevin exclaimed in surprise. Then he saw something in the other direction, and pointed quickly out the cockpit window with his other arm. The pilot followed his gaze to see a large tower coming straight at them. He lunged for the control stick, but it was too late. The Falcon smashed into the tower.

Darkness followed.

* * *

When Ryan's world came out of blackness, he discovered that he was staring at the sun again. He was reminded peacefully of the hours he had spent doing the same thing while on the prison platform. Then a yellow colored gauntlet reached down and hoisted the weapons specialist to his feet.

"Get the hell up, Hobar!" Patton shouted into his face. "We gotta move!"

Ryan was standing right before a huge durasteel tower. And behind him, he could see a horribly wrecked Falcon with its pieces all over the place. A layer of fuel had spilled onto the ground, and some puddles of it had lit afire. Metallic debris was everywhere. Mr. Boom was in the process of ripping off the head of one of the Falcons chaingun turrets. When he eventually succeeded, he slung it over his back, just like he had done with his first chaingun (which had been confiscated when they were first captured).

The other members of Lime were standing around the site, looking slightly dazed. Suddenly, Ryan remembered that all of Lime had been in the Falcon when it went down. Panic lights came on. "Oh, shit!" he exclaimed. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah, everyone made it out alive," said a stern voice next to him. It was Hester. "All Falcons are made to be poorly aerodynamic on their bottom facing side, such that if it should go into freefall, it has a terminal velocity that is significantly lower than most other types of aircraft. So we made it out safe. Well, most of us, at least." She scanned the wreckage, looking as though she was doing so for the thousandth time. "The pilot and that Green named Kevin are still unaccounted for, but we haven't found their bodies in the wreckage, so they're probably alive, but we don't know where they are."

"But no one seems to have died, right?" Ryan asked.

"That is correct," said Nome as he approached the three of them. "Specialist Retsis had a minor injury on her wrist, but I just finished taking care of that."

"In any case, we need to get out of here," said Hester, not just to those around her, but to everyone over TEAMCOM. The rest of Lime, as well as Fred Oofig, wandered over to her. It was interesting to note that Oofig seemed completely unscathed by the fire that had covered him only moments ago. Ryan was completely mystified by this, but he had far more urgent things to be thinking about at the moment, so he decided to let that question drop for now.

"So where should we go now, sis?" Wren asked.

It was Nome who gave an answer. He pointed off in the distance, to a large structure that rose above all other buildings on the fortress, and had an elaborate walkway decorated with orbs of light that lead into a large doorway. "We know that Vincent is determined to punish Skope because he blames him for blowing up his pile. Thus, he would want to have Skope brought directly to him. Since Vincent is, apparently, the leader of the Red Army, it only makes sense that he would take residence upon the central headquarters of this fortress."

"And that building is the central headquarters of this place, if ever I've seen it," Kenny finished for the medic.

"And hopefully Stone and Sinclair are there was well," said Patton.

That was when Hester held up her hand again. "Stop, everyone. Do you hear that?"

Everyone else paused and listened. From off in the distance, but coming quickly closer, was the sound of yelling, crashing, insane laughter, and explosions. They all looked at each other. "What in the heck do you suppose that is?" Ryan asked.

His question was answered when Skope, Clair, and Amber rounded a corner and came running at the rest of Lime faster than anyone had ever seen them run before. On sight, Jess enthusiastically shouted: "Skope! You're alright!"

"Amber," Ryan greeted.

"_Everyone run for your fucking lives!_" was the Yellow sniper's response.

Again, everyone else in Lime looked at each other.

Then Vincent also rounded the corner, laughing manically as loud as he could manage. Swirling around the insane fusion coil were three giant transparent orange balls of plasma. Lime remembered that the Reds called these objects 'kill balls' because they vaporized anything they touched. Skope, Clair, and Amber were racing for their lives as Vincent chased them with his three giant balls of death. He was followed by approximately five dozen Red soldiers, who swarmed around the bend in loose formation. It was only an instant before the fusion coil saw the rest of Lime standing near the tower, as did the army of Red soldiers.

And so, the real chase began.

* * *

The person who had been piloting the Falcon led Kevin, at gunpoint, slowly along the districts of the fortress. After the VTOL had crashed, he had grabbed Kevin and dragged him into a back ally before the rest of Lime could figure out what was going on. Since then, they had been walking along the streets of the fortress to an unknown location. The pilot seemed to have taken an interest in him, though Kevin did not know why. Any Red they passed along the way just assumed that Kevin was being led as a prisoner to another location, since the pilot still had his red colored armor on. This wasn't far from the truth, but Kevin still had no idea where the pilot was taking him, or who he was really working for. With nothing better to do, he decided to pop the question over to his captor. "Um, excuse me."

"Shut up," the pilot tersely responded.

"Where are we going?" Kevin persisted.

"You'll know soon enough," the pilot said.

"And who in the heck are you?"

The pilot sighed for the third time in recent past. "I suppose I might as well tell you. I've been waiting to meet you again for long enough now." He found another side ally and dragged Kevin into it. He then checked either ends of the ally to make sure no one was around.

"Now, could you please tell me what this is all about?" Kevin asked again.

The pilot chuckled slightly. "Oh, you want to know what this is about, do you? _Do you?_"

"Um, yeah," confirmed Kevin. "That's what I just said."

The pilot then reached under his helmet and pulled out a piece of cotton from his mouth. When he spoke again, his voice was all too familiar. "Remember me now, you backstabbing prick?" said Travis Chamealon.

"Ohmygod it's you," said Kevin as cold realization overtook him.

"_Yes, it's me_," said Chamealon with a terrifying amount of malice in his voice. "The person you left behind in that Yellow Base so that you could save your own sorry ass!"

"I'm sorry, really I am!" Kevin protested. "I had no choice. I had to leave right then, because the hanger door was closing, and-"

"Oh, shut up with your excuses!" the Purple shouted. "Do you have any idea what happened to me after you left? Any _fucking _idea?" Spontaneously, he rechecked the ally entrances to make sure no Reds had overheard his shouted. Then he shoved his magnum into Kevin's chest and whispered through his teeth: "_Tell me everything you think you know about where I've been!_"

Kevin struggled to think under the pressure. "I heard that Yellow Base was ransacked by the Reds during their attack on the Wilderness," he managed. "And that you were taken with them. That's all I really know. I'm sorry."

"Yes," said Chamealon coldly. "But that's only the start. After they abducted me from Yellow Base, they took me here to this fortress. And do you remember that idea that one Yellow came up with, about firing plasma grenades at me in a room full of shield walls? Well, the Reds picked up that idea during their exploration of Yellow Base. And when they took me here, they tried out that tactic on me."

"The _Reds_ put you in a shield room and fired plasma grenades at you?" Kevin asked, the shock showing in his voice.

"Yes!" the Purple shouted again. "For hours at a time! I finally did manage to escape, by using the same tactic that I did at Yellow Base to free myself of the neural blocker. Then I knocked out one of the guards, stole their armor and a Falcon, and came looking for you. But by then they had already tortured me in that chamber for…for…I don't want to even think about how long! And it all happened to me because of _you!_ Because you_ abandoned _me!"

"I'm sorry!" Kevin exclaimed again. "Please don't kill me!"

Chamealon laughed. "Oh, I'm not going to kill you, Guinness. No, instead I'm going to do to you what you did to me."

"What's that?" Kevin asked.

"I'm going to take you to the _Avant Garde_, where you will be held as a prisoner of war by my own Army!" said Chamealon slowly and cunningly.

"Huh?" said Kevin in confusion. Did you say the _Avant Garde_?"

"Do you mean to tell me that you really haven't been informed yet?" Chamealon asked.

"Informed of what?" Kevin asked.

The Purple laughed again. "You'll find out soon enough. Then only thing that you need to know right now is this: I am going to take you into my Army's custody. I will use this disguise to get us to a ship that will take us back to our universe, and then fly us up to the _Avant Garde_. The craft we'll be taking is a standard class in the Red Army that these soldiers use to get between universes easily, without having to create a stable portal to do so. They're kept in a hangar on the other side of this fortress. I originally meant to take Fred Oofig with us as well, because I know that the Admiral would be pleased to have a prisoner with special abilities like his. But after we crashed I only had time to grab you. So you'll have to be enough, if only for the sake of justice."

Kevin gulped as Chamealon said the last part. "You mean…the Admiral has returned?"

"Yes," said Chamealon. "And you will be seeing him very shortly. I'm sure he will be quite interested to hear about your journey in this universe, during your interrogation on the _Avant Garde_." The Purple chuckled again at that.

"Oh fuck," Kevin said slowly as he realized the full extent of Chamealon's plans for revenge over him.

The Purple nudged Kevin with his magnum. "Now come on. We shouldn't waste any more time. I want to be free of this fortress…and the Admiral is waiting."


	19. Guy Dudeperson

19 – GUY DUDEPERSON

A squad of three Warthogs slowly rolled their way along a cargo walkway of the Red Fortress. Each vehicle was a transport specialized type which had more seating in place of a gun turret. They all contained, at the moment, one person in red colored armor, their driver. The Warthogs were being escorted to a motor pool on the opposite side of the fortress. It had been a very slow day for the drivers. Their tasks had so far only involved moving stuff from one place to another. The driver of the middle Warthog, Guy, sighed as he looked around at the other drivers. Since the universal domination campaign had started, things were normally far more interesting then today was turning out to be. Guy was a maintenance specialist, so he couldn't take part in any battles or anything like that. But even while being stuck at the fortress, he normally encountered returned soldiers who would provide him with stories of valor. Each day, there was also usually some strange mechanism or mechanician that the scientists needed help to work on, which was never boring to take part on because usually someone would accidentally get lasered into nanoparticles or some other intriguing thing like that. But not today. Today, it had been nothing but relocating vehicles and doing repairs.

"Hey, what's that?" the driver on Guy's left (who he could not remember the name of) called over to him.

"What's what?" Guy called back.

"That sound," said the other driver.

Guy listened. Off in the distance, from the direction the Warthogs were traveling in, he could hear lots of screaming, shouting, explosions, and maniacal laughter. Which was not a thing he normally heard on the fortress. "I do hear it," he reported back to the other driver. "It's odd."

"Yup," the driver on his opposite side agreed, the one who hadn't spoken yet until now.

"Do you suppose it's some kind of party?" the driver on Guy's left asked the driver on his right.

"A party?" said the right driver. "I thought the Celebration in Anticipation of Universal Obliteration wasn't scheduled until Monday."

"Huh," said the left driver. "I wonder what it could be then."

"I hope it's something interesting," said the right driver.

That was when about a dozen soldiers in assorted green and yellow colored armor run up out of nowhere, followed by about sixty Red soldiers, and then Lord Vincent, who was cackling boisterously while telekinetically bouncing three Kill Balls behind him. The three Warthogs decelerated sharply to a stop, but not quickly enough to keep distance between them and the group of Green and Yellow soldiers. An extremely large Green with a chaingun turret slung over their back was the first to reach the Warthogs. The instant they did, the Green grabbed the driver of that Warthog and lifted him softly out of his seat as though he was a little doll, and then gently set him on the ground. Then the Green bent back their leg and kicked the Red over the railing of the walkway, punting him like a beach ball. Guy could only barely hear the soldier's scream as he plummeted down to the lower levels of the fortress.

The driver on Guy's right was the next to fall under attack. Instead of waiting to be thrown out, he just up and ran. Guy watched the poor solider flee when suddenly he felt the nose of a shotgun press against the back of his helmet.

"Fucking drive," a gruff voice commanded from behind him. He heard the sounds of people climbing into the seats behind him. He also noticed that the other two Warthogs now had become inhabited by the Greens and Yellows. "I said drive!" the voice continued.

Not knowing what else to do, Guy hit the accelerator. The shotgun banged him on the back of his helmet. "Not_ towards_ the people chasing us, you moron!" the gruff voice shouted. "Turn us the hell around."

Guy did a 180 as quickly as possible, now ending up behind the other two hijacked Warthogs, which had started going in the right direction from the outset. The Army of Reds behind the Warthogs was not happy that they were getting away, and several rockets flew past the APCs as they raced down the cargo walkway at top speed. Lime was fortunate that the rockets were not the automatic lock-on type, because if they had been then their getaway would have been significantly more complicated. But as it was, the rockets all missed them entirely, instead impacting on the rails of the roadway or spiraling up into the sky. It wasn't long before Lime had distanced themselves from the Reds entirely. Guy just kept on driving, not knowing what else to do.

After a moment or so of aimless driving, the Yellow sitting behind Guy re-applied the muzzle of his shotgun to the back of Guy's head and barked: "What's the quickest way to a teleporter off of this fortress?"

Guy had no choice but to hesitate, knowing the complicated answer to that question. The Yellow started counting down from three, and had gotten to two when Guy finally stammered: "That's a pointless question. All the teleporters will be locked down and inoperable until you are killed or captured. That's what we always do in the event of prisoner breakout."

"Fuck!" one of the Yellows on the Warthog to Guy's right thought aloud. "He better by lying about that, boss. Because if he's not-"

"Don't worry, Hobar," the Yellow sitting behind Guy called over to the other Yellow. "We'll manage. We always do." Then he whispered directly into Guy's visor: "Though if you really _are_ lying, then you're going to want to start counting your breaths, because you're living on borrowed time."

Guy wasn't lying. Teleporter lockdowns were standard procedure for events like this. He did actually have clearance access to teleporters on lockdown. He had to, in case they stopped working properly and had to be operated upon. But he had carefully chosen to leave that part out of his answer. He was pretty sure that he was dead as soon as these soldiers were done with him, so it was pointless to immediately tell them everything they wanted. Or on second thought, maybe they were just going to knock him unconscious. He decided to hope for that.

With no idea where to go, Guy just kept leading the trio of Warthogs along the main access roadways. They did come upon many enemy vehicles, as was inevitable. But they were going full speed, and the enemy vehicles were going in the opposite direction, so what always happened was that their pursuers would fly right past them and get left behind before they had a chance to turn around. This was a persistent, yet also unreliable, way of avoiding getting caught. However, Guy knew enough about the procedures of the Red Army to know that this would not work for more than a little while. He chose not to mention this to his captors because (1) he didn't have any ideas that could help them and (2) if he did tell them that capture was inevitable, he had a feeling they would just kill him. In any case, he knew that this chase would not last forever.

His captors seemed to realize this as well. One of the Greens in the right side Warthog said: "The Reds have quite certainly developed countermeasures for instances such as the one we are now inciting. I have little doubt that they will find a way to force us to abandon our vehicles as soon as they can. We will need to proceed on foot eventually. I am forced to wonder exactly what armaments we have garnered for which to fight with when this time arises."

One of the Yellows, in an extremely stern voice, responded: "Sinclair has an assault rifle and Stone has the same, as well as a sniper rifle. They were taken from a pair Reds who guarding them. Skope also has both an assault and sniper rifle, which he got from Sinclair. Then there's Patton, who has his shotgun, and Mr. Boom, who has both the chaingun turret he took from the Falcon, as well as all is C12."

"How does Mr. Boom have all his C12?" asked one of the Yellows from the Warthog on the left, who had been shouted at as 'Hobar' by the Yellow sitting behind Guy. "How was it not confiscated when we were captured?"

"I believe I know the answer to that," said the Green who had first spoken. "I was standing next to Mr. Boom when we were captured. I remember that they took all of Mr. Boom's guns, but mistakenly believed that the C12 charges on is utility belt were actually ammunition packages, and so they concluded that without his projectile weapons he would not be able to make use of them." He then turned to the Green sitting next to him, the one with the chaingun slung over his back, and asked: "That is true, is it not, Mr. Boom?"

Mr. Boom simply nodded.

The Yellow sitting behind Guy laughed loudly. "They actually let him keep his C12. Their mistake."

A Green from the Warthog on the right, who had a sniper rifle slung over is back, then put in: "Actually, Mr. Boom normally has his charges designed to look like ammo pouches." As the Green spoke, he kept glancing over at Mr. Boom for confirmation. "Which works for situations like this, but the main reason is just so that when he goes in public it doesn't look to everyone else like he's a terrorist or something. I know this because he and I have become a little acquainted during the time we lived together in our base, and he's shown me his stuff."

"Purposefully disguised," said the Yellow sitting behind Guy (and next to Kevin). "That explains a great deal."

The first Green then said: "Well, it does appear that we have several armaments from which to defend ourselves. Provided that we take care, I should think that they will be enough. It seems that the Reds are pulling away, which can only mean that they are setting up a trap for us. Every get ready."

The Green was right. There were now hardly any Red controlled vehicles on the roadway. As the Warthog trio rounded a bend and came into the center of a wide four-way intersection, the ground began to rumble. Without warning, huge durasteel walls rose up from the roadway that cut off the four roads leading out of the intersection. The Warthogs stopped dead. They were now trapped in a square area of road, with nowhere to turn.

The Yellow sitting behind Guy suddenly grabbed his backplate and lifted him out of his seat, while shoving his shotgun into the helpless Red's face. "You led us into a trap!" the Yellow bellowed into his visor. "I warned you. Now you die."

"I didn't know!" Guy protested. "I mean, I knew they were going to do this eventually, but I had no way of knowing it would be this particular intersection. I'm sorry. I did everything I could!" Guy could see on the soldier's chest plate that his title was Commander Alexander M. Patton. And Patton seemed about to pull the trigger on him, when something else caught his attention, as well as everyone else's.

The ground started rumbling again. And looking at the very center of the intersection, Guy saw that the road had opened up to reveal a square shaped shaft leading down further then he could see. The shaft was large, about fifteen meters on either side, and it was lucky that none of the Warthogs had happened to be underneath it when it opened up. The rumbling increased, and Guy got the impression that something was coming closer. Eventually something did emerge from the shaft. A long horizontal tube was first to rise out, followed by a large titanium body and a driver's canopy. It was a Scorpion-Class Main Battle Tank.

The tank driver laughed hysterically. "Why, hello again, prisoners!"

Guy recognized that voice instantly, though the Greens and Yellows apparently did as well. One of the Greens, a man with a sniper rifle slung over his back, exclaimed to everyone: "It's that same tank guy from the Grifball Arena, who was there when we were captured!"

That was when Guy felt compelled to put in: "Oh, yeah. I know him. His name's Hank. Hank the Tank. That's what we all call him here, anyways."

"Is that you, Guy?" Hank called over to Guy. "Taken hostage, eh?"

"Yup," Guy replied.

"Well then, I ought to get rid of these guys, oughtn't I?" said Hank the Tank.

"Yup," Guy said again.

The tank aimed to begin to take out the Greens and Yellows, only to find that they had already prepared for his strike. The Warthog the tank was aiming at sped off before the tank could fire. The turret did its best to follow the Warthog. The Warthog sped around the tank in an arc, then a circle...and kept going. One of the Greens still on the ground (whose nametag read Kenny Ynnek) started to laugh, realizing what was happening: the Warthog was going around and around the tank in a loop, and the turret was too slow to catch up to it.

This charade went on for about twenty seconds, before Hank finally stopped moving the turret and let out a frustrated yell. That was when he bothered to notice the Green that was laughing at him. As he aimed his turret at Kenny, the tank driver bellowed: "On second thought, maybe I should settle for you first!"

Kenny stopped laughing and noticed that the tank was aiming its turret at him. The turret was centering on the poor Green and about to fire. Kenny covered himself with his hands, as though it would do any good.

A BOOM shook the roadway.

Silence followed. The tank driver let out a boisterous laugh at what he thought was a good kill. Meanwhile, Kenny peeked out from behind his arms, wondering why he still was not dead. The tank driver looked over at Kenny and started wondering the same thing. Kenny removed his arms from the front of his visor entirely, then noticed the reason why the tank had not killed him, and started laughing again.

The tank turret was no longer on top of the tank. Instead, it was now lying on the ground beside the tank. Standing off to the tank's side, the really large Green with the chaingun on his back (whom everyone else simply called "Mr. Boom", for some reason) stood proudly, holding a detonation switch in his hand. It was now quite easy to piece together what had happened: while the Yellows were distracting the tank by drive-strafing around it, Mr. Boom had snuck up very close to the tank (below the limit of the tank's exterior camera views, to ensure that the tank was unaware of his presence) and set up remote detonators around the circumference of the neck of the tank. Then all he'd had to do was get some distance away from the tank, hit the detonator switch, and off had popped the tank turret.

Hank the tank driver, however, had still not realized that his tank was missing a turret. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he wondered aloud while pounding the control panel inside the driver's compartment. "Ah, you jammed again, didn't you? I knew I should've had you inspected this morning." He looked up towards where the turret used to be, as if he intended to mock it, when he finally noticed that it was missing. "_HUH?_" While still continuing to stare dumbly upwards, he jockeyed the control stick some more, clearly not believing what he was seeing. Of course, the turret did not fire. Then he bothered to look sideways and saw the turret lying off to the tank's side.

The driver stopped jockeying the controls as the truth sank in. "Oh shit," he resolved.

The sound of the cocking of a shotgun caused Hank to shift his attention once more. Patton was standing atop the front of the tank's body, just beyond the gunner's seat, and was quickly striding towards the driver's compartment. He was holding a shotgun and did not look to be in a very pleasant mood.

Hank laughed nervously. "If this is about me helping my army to capture you, I'm sorry! Can we talk? Work things out, maybe?" The Yellow said nothing and continued walking along the tank.

As Patton reached him, Hank thrust down the center lock on the canopy window. Patton blasted it off. Hank slid down the right side lock on the canopy. Patton blasted it off. Hank then reached for the left side lock, but before his hand made it that far, Patton hoisted up the canopy and pulled Hank out of the driver's compartment. With his free hand, Patton held Hank up in the air. With his shotgun hand, he aimed his shotgun directly down Hank's ass. "This is for being an asshole," Patton explained simply. Then he pulled the trigger.

With that matter taken care of, Patton hopped off of the tank. There was now only one Red left in the immediate area.

Guy realized with horror that all twelve of the Greens and Yellows were staring at him. His heart caught in his throat. The Greens and Yellows began to approach him, with Patton at the front. _These guys just shot Hank straight up the ass. What the hell do I do, ohgodohgodohgod!_ Guy was too terrified to even move.

The group of Greens and Yellows stopped in front of him, forming a semicircular ring around the defenseless Red. He could feel all of their stares. Patton's was especially venomous. Guy struggled frantically to think of what he could possibly say in this situation that could allow him to keep his life. Everything depended upon what he said next. His future hung in the balance of the impact of his next words. Eventually he decided upon the most coherent thing he could think of under the pressure, the one and only message his mind could come up with under all the stress, his final hope to continue on living.

"Hi," he squeaked.

"Guy…Dudeperson…" said Kenny as he read off of Guy's chestplate. "Wait, is that really your name?"

Guy knew better then to lie during an interrogation. "Yes," he answered as strongly as he could manage.

Several people in the Green/Yellow group glanced at each other.

"I know it's stupid," Guy elaborated. "But yes, it really is my name."

Another one of the Yellows stepped to the front. Her nameplate read "Hester Sharp". She stared down at him as though he was something her cat had thrown up on her favorite carpet. "Tell me, Guy Dudeperson," she ordered. "Do you have access to the teleporters, even while they are on lockdown?"

There was really no point in resisting. Guy had called this a pointless question when Patton has asked it to him the first time. But now he knew exactly how serious these guys were. "Yes," Guy said.

"And do you know the way to the teleporter leading to the giant hand? To the construct that Vincent intends to use to pop the universe?"

Guy had performed maintenance on the hand many times. He knew of that teleporter well. "Yes."

Hester turned to the rest of the group and nodded. "He seems honest." Then she turned back to him. "It seems that you might be of some use to us after all, Guy Dudeperson."

"Hobar, go help Mr. Boom with those wall charges," Patton barked to one of the other Yellows. The soldier he was talking to nodded and jogged off to the wall nearest where Guy was sitting. There, Mr. Boom had set up C12 charges at specific points on the wall. Stealth was not the way this group went about things, apparently.

Patton turned to Guy and shouted at him: "Now get up. We've got ground to cover. And you're leading the way."

Guy gulped and picked himself up off the ground. Today was turning out to be a pretty interesting day after all.


	20. The Moment We've Been Waiting For

20 – THE MOMENT WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR

Being in space was surprisingly boring. It always took Kevin off guard, how uninteresting it could be. He wasn't sure what else space could possibly be like, now that he thought about it. Space was vacuum, the very definition of nothing. Yet somehow, he always expected to find the process of traveling through it to be spectacular. But it certainly wasn't at the moment.

After Kevin had been abducted by Travis Chamealon, the two of them had gone into one of the Red Fortress' hanger bays, taken an interdimensional starfighter called a Longsword, and headed back into the normal universe. But it wasn't the planet XBOXL1V that they were heading to. It was something orbiting it. Travis had laughed as he revealed that he was taking Kevin to a Purple capitol ship called the _Avant Garde_. Where an admiral named Hathrow Vorennius, the most notorious and deadly tactician feared by the Green Army, was waiting for him.

Kevin stared out into space, trying to think about something pleasant. Travis, of course, was in the cockpit of the Longsword. But Kevin was in the back seat, with a neural blocker behind his neck to ensure that he couldn't move. Perhaps more because he couldn't stop it coming than anything else, Kevin feared the moment when they reached the _Avant Garde_. With every passing minute, he was nervous that it would be his last in the Longsword. But finally, that minute came.

A loud female voice, which sounded almost as bored as Kevin felt, stated through the control panel transceiver: "This is _Avant Garde_ Docking Bay Controller Zero Four Nine. Your request to dock has been received. Please enter your clearance code – wait, hold! The specifications of your ship do not match any in my database. What type of ship are you piloting? Over."

"Controller 049, this is Travis Chamealon. I was captured by the Reds, but have managed to escape on one of their ships and came back here. The ship I am piloting is a dimension-jump capable fighter that the Reds call a Longsword. I'm transmitting to you my clearance code now. Over."

"Well, Travis Chamealon, that's an interesting story," said the Controller. "Ah, but your clearance code does check out, and registers under that name. In that case, welcome aboard the _Avant Garde_, Specialist Chamealon. I am going to notify higher authorities, as well as a science team so that they can immediately begin studying the ship you've brought back. It's not every day we get a piece of enemy technology brought straight to us. I have to say, good job! Docking Bay Seven is open and ready to admit you."

"Thank you, Controller," said Travis as he shut off the transceiver. He punched a few buttons to set the fighter on autopilot for the coordinates of the open docking bay. Then he turned and called back to Kevin. "Well, we're finally in. I hope you're ready to see the Admiral. I'm sure he'll want to know a lot about the team that the Green-Yellow Alliance has sent into the other universe. And I'll be wanting a promotion!" Travis chuckled to himself.

For the umpteenth time of the day, Kevin groaned. He always thought his situation couldn't get any worse. Why? _Why did he keep thinking that?_

The Longsword slowly floated into the docking bay of the _Avant Garde_ like a rowboat about to be consumed by a sea monster.

* * *

Hearts, Deryn, Tom, Inez, and Brian were having their evening lemonade while watching the news on YellowNet. Or at least, that was what they had intended to be doing. Ever since Brian had entered the room, their viewing material had deviated from dignified news to fluffy animals jumping up and down continuously. Hearts had tried to switch back to the news, but Brian had insisted. Deryn's attempts to reason with the former Blue had been just as unsuccessful. Tom thought they should be watching the news as well, but simply because it would allow his team to actually learn something. Yet even he could not convince Brain to give up the remote. It didn't help that Inez didn't seem to care whatsoever about what was on, since she was probably the most capable to force Brian to do something. Instead, Inez just sat in her chair sipping lemonade. It was the only time of the day where she ever seemed as though she didn't have a care in the world.

The fluffy animals continued their inane hopping, and it was beginning to drive both Hearts and Deryn around the proverbial bend. "How…the hell…can you enjoy this!" Hearts exclaimed at Brian through gritted teeth.

"Everyone's so happy and joyful and energetic!" Brian exclaimed enthusiastically. "Like me, right?" He looked over at everyone else for approval. "Riiiiiight?"

Deryn considered removing the former Blue's arm from his body in order to secure the remote.

"Well at least it's not My Little Pony," Tom commented.

Brian spontaneously sucked in an almost inhuman amount of air, and then blurted out just as fast: "_Ohmygod, you like My Little Pony!_ Well so do I! That's a great idea. I'll switch to it right now."

Suddenly, Inez slammed down her lemonade cup, strode over to Brain, and ripped the remote out of his grasp. "No," was all she said to Brian as she switched back to the news.

"Oh thank God!" Hearts breathed.

The newswoman stood before a map of nearby Blue territory, just as she had the day before, when she had covered the story of the Giant Hand appearing to wreck havoc upon the unsuspecting location. This time, the map was covered with a whole layer of red Xs. Clearly, things had not gotten any better for the Blue Army in the last eight hours.

"This has just been reported," she said quickly. "The Giant Hand wrecking havoc on Blue outposts in this region has suddenly…disappeared. Just a few minutes ago, after destroying yet another Blue stronghold in this region, the Hand ceased its attack, opened up what appeared to be some kind of interdimensional portal, and left."

"Hm, that's curious," Deryn thought aloud.

"It's gone!" Brian shouted. "Hooray!" He started jumping up and down like the animals he had been watching on television, but Inez clamped her robotic arm down upon his shoulder to stop him.

"Why do you think it just up and left like that?" Hearts asked Tom.

"Can't say," Tom replied. "It could be a number of reasons, as far as we know. It ran out of energy and had to recharge. It fulfilled its mission in that region, whatever it might have been. Or maybe the people controlling it just lost interest. It's impossible to know for sure."

"This is going to complicate our efforts to use that contraption on it," said Deryn, referring to the device that Brain and Master Chief had somehow come upon the day before. "We finally have something capable of overloading the Hand's power core. The problem is that the device has to be extremely close to the Hand in order to do its work, and we haven't yet figured out a way to get close enough to it without getting vaporized by its lasers."

"It has LASERS –" Brian started. Hearts pulled out his magnum. Brain stopped in midsentence.

Continuing the existing conversation, Hearts said: "If only we'd gotten our hands on the device before Lime Squadron departed. It's their mission to stop the Hand. Oh well."

Suddenly, everyone's COMs started beeping.

"That's a signal that Bradley has something to tell us," said Tom as he got up. "Meet you all in the comm room."

"Sure thing," said Deryn.

"And me!" Brain shouted.

"Should we stop him?" Deryn whispered just out of Brain's hearing range.

Tom shrugged. "I don't think it matters. Let him come. He lives with us. He might as well get the news around here, even if he can tend to be a bit disruptive."

"Yeah…I guess," said Hearts, clearly not as approving of Brian's presence as Tom was. Though Tom did have a point, he decided. He took the remote from the table and shut off the holoprojection before making for the door.

And so, everyone departed for the comm room, former Blue included.

Hearts was the first to enter the comm room. He waited for everyone else to enter before hitting the activation switch on the holographic console. The group slowly formed a perimeter around the console. Once everyone was assembled, Hearts flipped on the holoprojector. The instant he did, a huge yellow chestplate, with the words "Lord High Commander General Bradley Patton" engraved on a nameplate, erupted from the screen almost like an explosion, making everyone jump. Looking more closely, Hearts realized that the top half of the chestplate narrowed in width, traveling up to what looked like a very skinny helmet, which towered high above them.

Suddenly the image changed entirely, and just as suddenly as it had first appeared. The huge chestplate was replaced by a massive helmet with a gold visor that was large enough to fill almost the entire room. Everyone was surprised, but this time prepared a little bit better, so the only person who jumped was Brian. Looking down to the very bottom of the hologram, Hearts could now see a very tiny chest and two extremely small legs, which existed off of the bottom of the helmet like some horribly overexaggerated chibi-style anime drawing.

"Is this view better?" Bradley Patton asked over the comm channel.

"You're still working on the focusing program for this hologram technology, aren't you?" Deryn asked Bradley.

"Yup," the Lord High Commander General confirmed. "I thought we were almost there last time I spoke with you, but it looks like there's still a ways to go before we perfect it."

"We can tell," commented Hearts.

"So, what is the subject of this meeting, Sir?" Tom asked. "We're still no closer to figuring out how to get Brian's device close enough to The Hand to overload its reactors, if that's what you came to ask."

Bradley shook his helmet, an act which looked to Lemon as though he was trying to knock over the walls of the room with his visor. "No, it's not that. The Hand has just retreated from its devastation campaign over the nearby Blue territory, as I'm sure you've learned from YellowNet. There's no way to know for sure, but we're hoping that it will give our planet a reprieve for a while. Actually, what I've come to talk about is something perhaps more important than the Hand. Well, for the immediate future, anyways. Kind of hard to top the importance of the universe itself."

"What is it, Sir?" Deryn asked.

"The moment we have all been waiting for has come," Bradley said proudly. "We have found a way to get all of you onto the _Avant Garde_."

Hearts slapped his gauntlets together at the same time that Deryn exhaled happily. Even Tom and Inez, who were both known to be nearly unemotional, were clearly enthused by the news, as they shifted posture slightly in obvious anticipation.

"Wait, what's an Avant Garde?" Brain asked confusedly.

Ignoring Brian, Bradley continued: "Just a few minutes ago, the sensors here at Command detected an identity signature, which belonged to a Green soldier."

"A _Green_ soldier?" Deryn asked. "Um, excuse me, Sir, but I'm a little confused."

"The signature was coming from Kevin Guiness, one of the members of Lime Squadron. As an act of trust between our Army and the Green Army, we shared the positioning frequencies for all members of Lime Squadron between ourselves, so that both armies know the locations of all members of Lime at all times…when they're in this universe, of course."

"And what is Guinness doing back in this universe?" Deryn continued. "Did Lime return from their mission in the alternate universe?"

"Not as far as we know," said Bradley. "Beyond what I've told you just now, we at Command don't really know what's going on. All that's clear is that Kevin is in this universe, and somehow he has ended up on the _Avant Garde_."

"So, how does this information allow _us _to get on the _Avant Garde?_" Tom asked.

"I'm glad you asked that," said Bradley. "Having a signal continually give us Guinness' positional coordinates allows us to lock onto the _Avant Garde's_ position, and stay locked on in real time. And just for this task, I'm having several of Command's science teams work together to make a set of remote-controllable OLAV pods. We'll get you all in the pods, then set their drop point to be Guinness' signature, and then fire you off. While you're in space, the guidance systems of the pods will constantly update their target deposit point to ensure that you make it to the Avant Garde."

"How do we know we won't get shot down on approach?" Deryn asked.

"The pods exteriors will be painted in light-absorbing material that will take in 99.9 percent of the light that hits them," Bradley explained. "With next to no emissions, the Avant Garde's scanners will have no way to detect you."

"Excellent," commented Hearts. "This could really work!"

"When do we leave?" Inez asked.

"ASAP," Bradley answered. "We don't know how long the signal from Guinness will keep transmitting, so it might as well be now or never."

"Got it," said Hearts as he and the rest of Lemon turned to leave.

"Oh, and you'll be taking Brian with you," said Bradley.

All of Lemon stopped in their tracks.

"Sir?" Tom asked.

"I said, you'll be taking Brain with you," Bradley repeated. "He's a good little soldier, and he could use the experience. He also is quite resourceful, since he somehow found the Anti-Hand contraption for you."

Hearts struggled to digest what Bradley had just said. "Brian…is coming with us…on a mission to infiltrate an enemy capitol ship and assassinate the leader of an entire Army?"

"Yes," said Bradley again. "You all seem to be having trouble understanding me. Is the signal malfunctioning?"

"No, it's not that, Sir," said Hearts. He decided to drop the Brian subject, since it wasn't really going anywhere. "We'll see you at Command."

"And I look very forward to it!" Bradley exclaimed as he ended the transmission.

"Ooooh, this sounds fun!" Brian shouted as he followed Lime out of the comm room. "I always love to visit new places."

"Get your things, Brain," Inez said coldly. "Make sure you take the weapons that you are most comfortable killing with."

Brian thought to himself. Then he shot up, pointed his finger in the air, and exclaimed: "Okay, I'll pull out my plastic laser blaster!"

"Leave that one," said Deryn. "Take only the weapons that are actual weapons."

"Oh, right!" said Brain. He hurried off to prepare for the operation, whimsically skipping his feet as he moved carelessly down the hall.

_What the hell was Bradley thinking sending him along with us, _Hearts thought silently to himself. _Blue, I don't know how this _won't _happen, but even still, I _really_ hope you don't screw this operation up! _It was difficult enough keeping the Blue's mind off of cartoons, so howwere they supposed to keep his mind focused _on_ a major operation? Not to mention his personality; Just this morning Brian had woken everyone up at 0400 hours by shouting into the base's microphone system at the top of his lungs and pretending to be Invader Zim launching an assault on all of humanity in the name of the Irkin Empire. The rest of Lemon had just barely stopped Deryn from executing the poor ex-Blue on the spot.

And now Brian was being sent on a top secret operation into an enemy capitol ship. He wouldn't survive, Hearts was sure of that. Though whether his death would happen at the hands of the Purples, or from his own team out of sheer annoyance, Hearts really had no clue. He shrugged. He needed to head to his quarters, because it was time to prepare for what would probably turn out to be the toughest operation his team had ever attempted, Brian's accompaniment notwithstanding.


	21. Captive, Going on Captor

21 – CAPTIVE, GOING ON CAPTOR

"AHHHHHHHH," a Red soldier said delightfully to another, yawning.

The second solider turned to the first. "It's not even six yet. How can you be tired already?"

"I'm not," said the first soldier. "I just felt like yawning, is all."

"You're weird."

The two of them continued their vigil, which was to guard the entrance to the Sector 17 roadways. A few more minutes ticked by. The first soldier thought of all the weird things that had happened this week, what with the beginning of the Campaign for Universal Obliteration and all. It was amazing that, in just a week, this army had been created, constructed a civilization in another dimension, and launched a war on another planet, which was even in another universe. All in all, it was starting to be a bit much. The soldier knew that he, as well as many other people, were starting to wonder if universal obliteration was coming along too quickly.

From off to the side of the first solider, a "blarg" sound was followed a_ slump_ and then a _thud_. The first soldier turned to find the second laying face up on the ground. "Sleeping on the job, now, are we?" he called out loudly.

The second soldier didn't move.

"Am I going to have to report you?" the first soldier said, this time even louder than he had just before.

The second solider still did not move. The first soldier crossed his arms and let out a "hmf". Then he noticed something about the second solider. "Hey, what's this hole doing in your helmet?"

Then the first soldier fell to the ground, landing face down since he had been leaning over to begin with. A similarly sized hole shone out of the back of his helmet.

From across the roadway, peeking around an alley corner, Amber watched the soldier fall through the scope of her sniper rifle. She didn't like using the Red's variant of sniper rifle as much as the one she had fashioned for herself. Its zoom view was incremental instead of precise, so she had to choose from a preset number of zoom settings instead of being able to set the view exactly as she wanted it. Also, the upper half of the rifle had a different weight somehow, much denser, so that it felt as though the gun always wanted to turn upside down in her hands. It was awkward. However, this rifle was also the only one she had at the moment. Her original had been confiscated during her capture by the Reds in the Griffball Arena, and this one she had taken from one of the soldiers guarding her and Clair.

Amber scanned the area for more enemies, of which there were none, then lowered the rifle's eyepiece from her visor. "It's clear."

She stepped out into the roadway. The rest of Lime Squadron followed her, single file. Since Amber was the only sniper in the group (Rodney Hearts being back in the other universe), she had been leading the group and taking out far away enemies with her sniper rifle. They were journeying across the cityscape of the Red Fortress to find the teleporter that a Red prisoner they had taken in, named Guy Dudeperson, had said would take them to The Hand.

The group pressed forward, moving towards the gate that the two guards had been standing in front of. Everyone kept their heads on a swivel to look in both directions, trying to make sure that no one came onto the street and saw them. They all sprinted across the street to cover the open ground as quickly as possible. Ryan stopped and laughed as he saw the two dead Red guards, one lying face up with a hole in his visor, and the other lying right next to him, who was face down and had a hole in the back of his helmet. "Am I the only one who thinks that looks really stupid?" he asked.

Jess said: "The way that they're right next to each other, I think it looks kind of cute."

"Or like they tried to mount each other but failed!" Kenny laughed loudly.

Deciding that it was time to switch to a different conversation, Patton slapped is hand down on Guy's shoulder from behind. He wanted to surprise the Red, because usually people had a harder time lying when they were startled. "So, are we still going in the right direction, Red?" he asked sternly.

Guy jumped as Patton' gauntlet slapped down upon him. "Um…yes." He stopped to catch his breath, still recovering from the surprise. "We need to take this road, and then take a left, and that way for two blocks–"

"That would take us back north, towards the center of the city!" Patton objected. "Are you trying to lead us around in circles?"

Patton was holding Lucy so that it was within the Red's sight. Guy shook his head frantically. "No. It's just so that we can go around the monitoring station for this sector. Otherwise, we'd need to go right through the middle of a heavily guarded part of the fortress."

Patton looked over at Wren. "Is the Red telling the truth?" he asked her.

She looked at her tacpad, which was specially designed to give a tactical overlay of whatever region she was in. She tapped buttons on it for some moments before replying: "Yep, he's saying it like it is. The place we're going around is apparently the base of operations for the security deployment for this quarter of the city. The Red was actually very right in leading us to circumnavigate it."

Patton let go of Guy's shoulder. "Very well then, Red. Continue on."

Guy was about to take a step in the direction down the roadway when the ground suddenly began to shake. Then everything tuned to white. Everyone shielded their eyes. It was something up in the sky which was causing the glow. Looking up, everyone could now see a giant metal hand floating above the city, coming through a brilliant white sphere of light. The giant ball of light grew smaller as the Hand continued to exit from it. When the last of the Hand's wrist was beyond the light's circumference, the ball of light vanished completely.

"What the fuck is that doing here?" Kevin exclaimed.

The Hand continued to move across the city. It made a subtle rumble as it did so, which was probably caused by its fusion core and engines. Despite is size, the Hand moved across the city quite quickly. Having been in this dimension for only about fifteen seconds, it was now most of the way across the city. Suddenly another ball of light burst into existence, at the corner of the city that the Hand was heading to. The Hand's finger poked inside of it as the light became larger, and soon the entire Hand was inside. Then the second light vanished, as quickly as it had first appeared.

Patton, Hester, and Wren all pointed their weapons directly at Guy Dudeperson.

"You said that you were taking us to the teleporter leading to the Hand," said Hester.

"Yes," Guy squeaked.

"So then what the hell did we just see?" Patton asked.

"The Hand, coming through a slipspace portal," said Guy.

"Where were you really leading us?" Hester asked.

"Interestingly, the place where the Hand is now," Guy said nervously.

Everyone continued to stare at him.

"I didn't actually know where the Hand was when I started directing you guys!" Guy burst out suddenly, clearly breaking under pressure. "I'd heard it was going to destroy a continent on some planet called Xbox Live, or something like that. But I didn't know any specifics. So I started leading you to where I knew it would eventually be, the dimension where the Hand is stored."

Nome decided to test the Red's honesty by having him describe the place the Hand was kept, since he and most of Lime Squadron had already been there before, having been teleported there by Vincent during the Battle of Yellow Command. He stepped in front of the Red. "Describe this place," he ordered Guy.

"It-it's an island," Guy stammered fearfully. "It was derived from the island in this dimension that's underneath this city. The same island, basically, except in another dimension, and modified to allow the Hand's construction. A lot of the natural rock had to be replaced with more fortress, so that we could build the Hand at the tip of the island's peak. For some reason, the sun in that dimension is near the end if its life cycle, so all the light that comes down, even in the height of day, has this blood red color."

Nome paid close attention to the Red's visor as he spoke. As soon as the Red was done, Nome confirmed: "He speaks the truth. He really was leading us there."

"And still am, if you can all avoid killing me along the way," said Guy, looking around at all the weapons that Lime was pointing at his helmet.

"Hold on a second," Hester said suddenly. "Did you just say that the Hand had gotten back from attacking _the planet XBOXL1V_?"

"Um, yeah," said Guy. "Its space-time poking weapon isn't complete yet, so instead the Hand just used huge lasers to blow up stuff."

Everyone in Lime stared at the Red.

"What part of the planet?" Kevin asked.

Guy shrugged. "I dunno."

Patton clamped his gauntlets back down upon Guy's shoulder and shook him. "He asked you, where on the planet did the Hand attack?"

"I don't know!" Guy stammered. "I'm not privy to that information!"

Once again, guns were jammed into the poor Red's visor.

"I think I heard…Blue territory. Yes, that's right! Blue territory, near the Halothrii Wilderness, but far enough away from it that the conflict of the main war wouldn't notice the Hand's presence."

The guns were removed from Guy's visor. "Never mind," said Patton. "Blue territory. It's just the Blues who got massacred. No one else."

Everyone in Lime let out sighs of relief.

"Wait, how do we know he's not lying?" Kevin asked.

Hester replied bluntly: "When we get back, we check to see if the Wilderness is still there. If it isn't, the Red dies."

"Oh, you're _from_ the Wilderness!" Guy exclaimed. "That explains why you wanted to know about the Hand's attack so badly." Then he sucked in a breath. "Wait a minute, what was that about you taking me to the Wilderness? I thought I was supposed to lead you to the Hand. Don't tell me that even after I do that, you're going to hang onto me!"

"You're our prisoner," said Patton. "Take the hint."

Guy shook his head and wiggled his fist at the sky. "Why did it have to be me!"

* * *

The group continued towards the teleporter. Guy seemed quite a bit more reluctant to lead them to it, understandably, but since his life was still in the balance, he had no choice but to follow Lime Squadron's demands. They wound their way through several more blocks of the Fortress. Finally, they came upon the building which Guy said housed the teleporter they were looking for. The building was crawling with Reds, but fortunately Lime had devised a plan by that point, to get everyone through without being suspected.

Guy stomped through the doors, strutting his chest proudly. Lime Squadron followed behind him, trying to seem as cowardly and meek in their posture as possible. Naturally, they attracted stares from all the Reds in the vicinity. "These are my prisoners!" Guy said strongly. He made sure to give nods to everyone he passed by, so as not to arouse any suspicion. For him, it was horribly ironic that he was having to play the captor, when really he was the captive. Everyone continued to eye the group as they passed by, though fortunately no one noticed that none of Guy's "captives" were wearing a neural jammer.

The group reached an elevator. The car happened to be on their current floor, so everyone just stepped on in. A lone Red was in the car already. He was forced to back all the way up to the far wall of the compartment to allow the entire group to enter. "Hey, look at all of these guys I captured!" Guy laughed nervously.

The doors closed and the elevator began to move. The Red stared at Lime Squadron for a moment before deciding to observe the car's ceiling tiles obsessively, apparently trying to avoid attracting any attention. Elevator music had started to play, some kind of pop jazz mix. Fred Oofig started to dance to it a little bit, before Nome nudged him with his elbow to make him realize what he was doing.

After about thirty seconds, the elevator reached the floor that the lone Red had to get off on. The group had to shuffle miserably to find a way to let the poor guy off. Eventually the Red was able to squeeze through, however, and then Lime and their captive were alone in the car. "I can't believe this is working," Guy admitted.

A moment later the car arrived at the top floor of the building, which held the teleporter. The doors opened to reveal a hall. Two Red guards waited for them just outside the car. "Clearance is required beyond this point," the guard on the left said sternly.

Guy presented the guards with his ID card. They observed it before nodding to each other. "Yup, it checks out," said the guard on the right. "But um, what are these other guys doing here? They're from different armies, or I'm colorblind."

"They're my prisoners," Guy explained.

The two guards looked at each other again.

"Oh yeah, we so totally are," said Kenny while bobbing his head stupidly up and down.

The guards looked back and forth between the group and each other. The left guard looked at the right guard, and the right guard shrugged his shoulders. Finally the two of them settled on "Well, his clearance does check out." The two guards stepped aside to let the group pass.

They were about halfway through when suddenly the left guard grabbed onto Jess' arm. "Hey Guy, none of your 'prisoners' are wearing any neural jammer. You're all going to stay right here-"

Hester and Wren whipped out their magnums and headshotted both of the guards, performing their actions so synchronously that the shots sounded only like one very loud shot instead of two lesser ones. The guards fell to the floor.

Patton shrugged. "Well, the prisoner gig got us this far."

"Far enough," said Guy. "The teleporter is kept in the next room." Lime Squadron followed him to the end of the hall, which had a door. Guy held it open to let everyone else inside, before entering himself. A dimly lit square room awaited them. And sure enough, a teleporter sat at its center. "I need to explain something," Guy said slowly as everyone approached the teleporter. The group stopped, having formed a semicircular ring around the node.

"If it's important, then speak," said Hester.

"This teleporter won't take us directly to The Hand," Guy continued. "The road to The Hand will require us to take a trip through several teleporters, due to the complex network of worlds that the Red Army has managed to link to within this universe."

"Where does this teleporter take us, in that case?" Nome asked.

"It takes us to the forest at the center of the Swirling Abyss of Absentmindedness," Guy answered. "My army has recently set up a base there which contains the teleporter we need to get into."

"We've already been to that place!" Jess exclaimed.

"Red, remember what will happen to you if you lead us into a trap!" Patton shouted.

"I know, I know!" Guy said as he put up his hands defensively. "But this really is the only way, you guys have to believe me! Listen, there are these spatial anomalies centered around this one location. Swirling colored lights. Did you guys see those? And if the right electromagnetic frequency is applied to them, they can be used to open a teleportation system to the place where the Hand is kept. My Army actually uses it to transit to a variety of locations, but it can connect to the dimension you guys want to travel to."

Nome was nodding strongly. Everyone remembered the lights they had seen in the forest, which they had used as a portal to get back to their own universe. And on their way back, they had seen many other locations as well, thus lending credence to what Guy was telling them.

"I think we should do it," Patton said to Hester. "The Red's story matches what we experienced the first time we were in the universe."

"Is everyone else in agreement?" Hester asked the rest of the group. Upon seeing many nods, she then said: "Alright, let's do this."

Guy walked up to one of the room's consoles, hit a few keys, and the teleporter lit up with the same green light that Lime had seen before. Patton grabbed onto Guy and the two of them walked in together, for just in case Guy really was setting a trap, in which case he would be forced to enter it himself. Fortunately, the Red made no reaction upon stepping in. With that, the rest of Lime followed, returning to the Swirling Abyss of Absentmindedness and taking one more step upon their journey to stop a neurotic fusion coil from popping the fabric of the universe.


	22. Brian, Discussed at Command

22 – BRIAN, DISCUSSED AT COMMAND

Lemon Squadron emerged through the teleporter in a quick but deliberate fashion, with Hearts, Tom, Inez, and Deryn walking brusquely in a single file line. They strode down the hallway of Yellow Command's Sector 3 Teleporter Entrance Lobby, and as they passed, Yellow soldiers moving past them watched the Squadron with an air of fascination. For the onlookers knew that something big was up. This was the real deal. Lemon was on a serious and important mission.

"Hey, where's Brian?" Tom suddenly asked.

The group stopped.

"He's not with us?" Deryn asked.

The four of them looked all around. Indeed, Brian was not among them, and nowhere in the hallway.

"He didn't come through the teleporter," Hearts realized aloud.

"Well we're sure as hell not going back for him," Deryn stated.

Tom shrugged. "I think it might actually be a good idea. The Lord High Commander General specifically requested that we bring him along."

Inez nodded slowly. "Yes. We must go back."

"You can't be serious," Hearts protested.

"Yeah I am," said Tom. "And so is Inez. Because, when is she ever_ not _serious?"

Hearts groaned while Deryn covered her visor with her gauntlets. Slowly, the group reiterated their tracks back to the teleporter. "Should we draw straws and see who gets to go in?" Hearts asked.

"I will do it," said Inez coldly. She flexed and then un-flexed her robotic hand as she spoke.

Suddenly Brian exploded from the teleporter, skipping at full trot. "HIIIIIIIII-"

He crashed straight into Hearts, who was still standing right in front of the teleporter, and the two of them went tumbling to the ground.

"_You…_" Hearts exhaled through his teeth.

"Oh, hi everyone!" Brian shouted as he popped up from the floor. "I forgot something, so I had to pop back into the base to pick it up. Marshmallows. See, I didn't know if OLAV pods have campfire sites that you can roast things over or not. But I remember that handy Hearts told me that you need to be prepared for every mission. So I decided that I absolutely _had _to get those marshmallows." He rummaged around in the supply pack on his back for a moment. "Well shoot, I still forgot the marshmallows. I got kind of distracted while I was back at base. Ah, but I did bring something else that we might find extremely useful." He pulled out a pink rubber disk and showed it to everyone. "Look, a whoopee cushion!" He inflated it and then squished it a few times, so that he could make that fart noise that he just loved so much.

Meanwhile, Lemon stared at the former Blue in a combination of disgust and annoyance.

"You can't possibly be for real," Deryn exclaimed while shaking her helmet.

Inez grabbed onto the former Blue's arm and began walking down the hallway, dragging Brian along with her. "We have the Blue. Let's get it to Bradley." Without objection, the rest of Lemon followed.

The journey to Bradley was fortunately far less annoying than its false start had been. Lemon and Brain proudly strode through the hallways, with Lemon again being able to put on the posture and err that they were extremely important individuals in a vitally serious mission of dire consequences (which was of course the case). Even so, Brian would almost constantly get distracted by something, such as a particularly bright light, or the scene of the planet XBOXL1V out of a window, or an object that he somehow came to think was a balloon. Yet Inez's gauntlet kept the ex-Blue from actually wandering off, so the group was undeterred by Brian's attempts to stall everything.

Deryn wondered exactly how long it would take Brian to die as soon as he got on the _Avant Garde_. She considered sticking a timer onto his armor which would send a constant signal to her, so that she could see exactly how many seconds he would stay alive once the operation actually began. The radiation-resistant OLAV pods would prevent the signal from being transmitted while they were in transit through space, but once they arrived on the _Avant Garde_, the signal would immediately carry through, which would be good since that could be used to start the timer. But then Deryn began to wonder if it was really worth doing. She decided, probably not. Because she already knew that the ex-Blue was going to die almost instantly anyways, so she didn't see why she should bother, except perhaps to satisfy her vain curiosity.

After about three minutes of walking along the corridors of the station, the group finally came to their destination upon it: the bridge. Normally they would have needed to present identification to the two guards standing on either side of the door outside. But being Lemon Squadron, basically everyone already knew exactly who they were. The guards simply nodded their helmets and admitted them entrance. However, they did follow Brian with their eyes as the group passed, since they were no doubt wondering why a member of Lemon Squadron was hauling in with her robotic arm a squeaky little soldier who was boisterously yelling about how wonderful balloons were. The doors closed again, and the guards were left to wonder by themselves.

On the bridge, officers were walking quickly to different parts of the room while dozens of soldiers worked at computer monitors along the circumference of the room. Since the Battle of Yellow Command and the Red's attempted siege of the station, the room had undergone significant remodeling, in large part due to the fact that so much of it had been wrecked when the fusion coil Vincent had opened up an interdimensional portal in the very center of the room. Even still, nearly all of the layout was still the same. Even the holographic console in the rooms center had been repaired or replaced (Lemon wasn't sure which). The only thing that was actually different about the room was that the huge semicircular window wall, looking out into space, had been made slightly smaller, to make room for even more control consoles on the room's circumference.

Bradley was standing at the central holographic console, which was currently displaying a three dimensional wire-frame image of the _Avant Garde_. He somehow seemed to sense that Lemon had arrived, and turned to face them as soon as they approached him. The group formed a semicircle around Bradley. Inez let go of Brian, having finally dragged him where he was supposed to be.

"This is it, everyone," said Bradley. "The time has come to take out Hathrow Vorennius. For this Admiral is, and always has been, a grave threat to us and all other armies. It is very good news that we were able to secure a truce with the Greens just before Vorennius announced his existence. This operation will not be a joint one, since you have always worked so well together, and the Greens would likely shift the delicate tactical balance of the team if any were sent along with you. However, in light of the reincarnated power of the Purple Army, this new truce is invaluable, and has come at an impeccable time. The ability to work together with other armies an only ever be an advantage for both parties."

"Sir," Tom said, "You've been thinking a lot about how to convince us to take Brain along, haven't you? Because as far as this particular operation is concerned, I don't think the Greens have anything to do with it. Though I _can_ understand why you didn't try to make the same statement using the Blue Army."

Bradley sighed. "And you're still not all that convinced, are you?" Upon the shaking of heads from Lemon, the Lord High Commander General then stated: "Well, orders are orders. I was just trying to get you to see my reasoning behind this."

"Did you see him when we dragged him in here just now?" Hearts broke out. "He is immature, hyperactive, and unmanageable! Just useless. With respect to your orders, sir, how exactly do you expect us to operate along with him?"

"He's also energetic, resourceful, a little perky, and he gets results."

"He does?" Hearts asked, the confusion plain in his tone. "Just look at him. He's nothing but useless!" He looked over to his right, and suddenly realized that the Blue was not by Inez's side.

The group began swivel their heads to find him, but it was actually Bradley who spotted the ex-Blue first. He pointed over to one of the wall monitors. There, Brian was talking wildly with the controller of that station, boisterously radiating exclamations such as: "Hey, what's this button do? Or what about _this_ button?"

Bradley mumbled something under his breath. Though he intended to conceal it somewhat, it sounded to Lemon like "Did that Blue become even_ less_ mature since the last time I saw him?" To Lemon, he then said aloud: "Someone please stop him before he rotates the solar panel array upside down accidentally." With his left gauntlet, he massaged his visor as he spoke.

Inez clamped her robotic arm back onto Brain and dragged him over to where the rest of Lemon was standing. "Do you see what I'm referring to?" Hearts asked the Lord High Commander General as soon as Brian was back in position. "Completely useless."

"Well then let me ask you something," Bradley said to Hearts. "A few days ago, I assigned you and your team to the base in the canyon, to find a way to destroy the Hand. In that time, you and your teammates accomplished hardly anything, except to analyze the situation of the Hand, whenever it was in this universe, and then tell me over holocom terminal what I already knew. However, Brian has managed to accomplish something far more tangible: he has been able to find and bring back a device that is capable of destroying the Hand, which is something that he wasn't even assigned to do. So if, according to your logic, Brian is useless, then what does that make you?"

Brian was nodding enthusiastically along with everything Bradley said. Hearts, on the other hand, had absolutely no answer to that question, so instead of speaking, he just stood at attention, doing everything in his power to look very important. "Sir," he finally managed. "I have decided to revise the statements that I made before. I believe that it would be for the best of the operation if Brian did accompany us."

Bradley nodded slowly. "I see. Not that it matters at all what you think, since you already have my orders, but even still, I always do like to take the thoughts and opinions of my fellow soldiers into account."

Deryn jabbed Hearts in the side with her elbow. She whispered into his ear: "Why couldn't you have just said that Brain was lucky or something? Who turned on your ass-kissing switch?"

Bradley was ready to move on from the current conversation. "Well, if everything is in order, then I think it's time that the five of you were off to the OLAV pods. Time is of the essence, of course."

Hearts nodded, more than eager to be done with talking about Brain, even though he had failed to convince Bradley to let the Blue stay out of the operation. Bradley strode quickly towards a side door leading off of the bridge, with Lemon and Brian following closely behind. The Lord High Commander General led the group through several different sectors of the station as they proceeded on their journey across it. The members of Lemon already knew exactly where he was going, since they had helljumped from this station before. But it was still nice to be escorted by Bradley. Something about the act of proudly following behind someone with the rank of Lord High Commander General had always just felt really good to Lemon.

After perhaps ten minutes of striding through the massive station, Bradley, Brian, and friends finally reached their destination. A huge steel door at the end of a long hallway slid slowly open to allow the group passage. Lemon immediately recognized the room they stepped into. "Hello, old friend," Deryn said quietly. A huge chamber stretched roughly one hundred meters out from the group on both sides, forming a gigantic hallway with red lighting. Along the far wall of the hallway were hundreds upon hundreds of OLAV pods, set into their tubes and prepped for launch. But five of them, set almost immediately in front of the door, stood out in particular.

The five pods sat side-by-side to each other. They were slightly taller and wider than the standard type of OLAV pod, and had a sleek black finish which absorbed all of the light that hit it. Their smooth edgeless surfaces, contrasted with the bulkiness of normal OLAV pods, created a very round, sort of tear drop like shape. From the way the light simply vanished when it touched their curved and irregular manifolds, it seemed almost as though the pods were trying to hungrily devour all of the light in the room. Clearly, these were the radiation-resistant OLAV pods that Bradley had first mentioned to Lemon over holocomm when they were still at base.

"Wow, these OLAV pods actually do look like olives," Hearts commented.

Inez stepped away from the group, towards the pods, and extended her robotic arm out towards the one nearest her. She slowly moved her gauntlet down the pod's side. It was difficult to tell, because Inez hardly ever emoted, but it seemed as though she was taking in the aesthetic look of the pods, as though she thought they were beautiful. As far as the rest of Lemon knew, she liked how the cold darkness of the pod's appearances reminded her of her own personality. But this feeling did not last long, for as soon as her gauntlet finished sliding down the pod's side, she took it off and turned back towards the group. "What are you all waiting for?" she demanded. "We have a mission to complete."

Hearts nodded and stepped forward. "Yeah, it's time to get this over with."

"I assume you can all take it from here," said Bradley.

Each member of Lemon chose a pod and faced its front, then toughed their gauntlet to the right side of their pod's front face, which contained a hidden panel. Upon recognizing their gauntlet's imprinted ID signatures, the front surface suddenly slid open to reveal a place for the pod's occupants to stand. This was the moment that every helljumper always remembered: the moment right before they fulfilled their position's slang title and jumped straight into hell. A dignified moment. A moment that could not be forgotten.

Meanwhile, Brian stood next to Bradley, looking totally confused.

"Brian, get in your pod," Hearts ordered when he saw that the Blue was still standing outside of the last pod. "What are you waiting for?"

Bradley decided that it was time to move things along. He escorted Brian over to the one remaining pod that hadn't been taken and showed him where to place his gauntlet. As soon as the pod's cover slid open, Bradley then "escorted" the former Blue inside, nearly shoving him into the compartment in a hurry to get Brian's introduction to helljumping over with. Before Brian knew what was happening, the cover of the pod slid back down, trapping him inside the pod.

Bradley moved back to the center of the row, so that everyone could see him. "I bid you all a good farewell and hope you have a safe trip. Your army, as well as the Green Army, is counting on you."

From inside their pods, Lemon gave salutes. Then Bradley hit the release lever for the pods. And with that, their journey through space began. Stars, instead of metal, now surrounded the five Yellows, for the material of the pod's casing actually let in light. The station sat above them like an ominous, metal shadow, yet slowly grew smaller with each second. As the five pods increased their distance from it, the station became far less significant according to their sight, now appearing as little more than a cross shaped metal object floating around the massive planet XBOXL1V.

Inside his pod, Hearts began to relax. He always enjoyed flying through space, even more so in pods with casings that light could enter through, so that he could look out into the stars. This was, undoubtedly, his favorite part of any mission. Despite the fact that he was always on his way to kill a bunch of people when in an OLAV pod, the journey through space had always been oddly calming to him.

Hearts' groove was suddenly interrupted by a bleeping from his tacad, the 'incoming message' kind of tone, and it was over TEAMCOM too, so everyone else on Lemon would hear it as well. _Could it be Bradley_, he wondered. _Has he forgotten to tell us something about the mission? _He answered it. Much to his chagrin, it was Brian. _Oh, God, not him. ANYONE but him! _He took a deep breath. "What is it, Brian?"

"I have to go to the bathroom," came the reply.

"Please repeat," Hearts said coldly.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Brian said again. "Like, really bad. I forgot to go before we left, because there were all these hologram things at the station, and I got distracted." In the background of the transmission, Hearts thought he could hear Deryn laughing at the top of her lungs, which was probably audible to him due to feedback.

Hearts took about ten seconds to try to think of what to say, before he settled on: "I'm afraid I can't help you, Brian."

"But I really have to go!"

Hearts could feel his patience wearing thin like a rubber wire being pulled on by two Scorpion Tanks from both ends. "Brian!" he nearly shouted. "You're inside an OLAV pod…that is flying through the vacuum of space. There is no bathroom."

Brian's next response was a horrified gasp. "No!"

Hearts cut the transmission and tried to relax again. But his peace was sundered yet again, only seconds later. Upon his refusal to answer his tacpad, the transmission went straight to voice message…which unfortunately had been set to go on speaker as it was being recorded. "What about that Avant Garde ship that we're going to?" said Brian. "It looks really large, so it must have a bathroom, right? If I can just hold it until we get there, then can I use the Purple's bathroom. Can I?"

Hearts did his best to cover his tacpad with his gauntlet, though it did little to muffle the sound. Brian had been well known for his ability to talk endlessly, and this occasion was no exception. The unintentionally relentless former Blue kept going on and on about bathrooms and ships and stars and balloons and muffins and the mystery of muffins (he seemed to have forgotten that he needed to pee by this point).

Hearts had absolutely no idea how long it would take him and his teammates to reach the _Avant Garde_. But he hoped it would be soon. For under prolonged exposure to Brian's enthusiastic ranting, he did not know how long his, or the rest of Lemon's, sanity could endure.


	23. The People of the Forest

23 – THE PEOPLE OF THE FOREST

Skope felt the familiar rush of the senses as he, along with the rest of Lime Squadron, journeyed along the path of the teleporter they had stepped into. It was a very brief experience, like a flash of light and sound, yet none the less memorable, and gone as soon as the trip was done. Lime Squadron appeared in a location that the Greens remembered distinctively. Large metal pillars, obelisks, stretched up from the flat ground all around them. They were in the forest that they had found just before leaving the Abyss (when they had journeyed through it the first time).

"We're back here again," said Jess as she looked around.

"One weird-ass place," said Ryan as he took in his new surroundings.

Patton was still holding onto the Red prisoner, Guy Dudeperson's, shoulder. "So where's this teleporter supposed to be that will lead us to the Hand?" the Yellow asked the Red.

"Like I said," Guy replied, "The teleporter we take from here will lead us on a network of different nodes onwards. Not just through different dimensions, but through different other universes as well. We will go through the node here, which will take us to another universe, where we take another node, and so on until we finally get to the node that will take us back to this universe, into the dimension where the Hand is kept."

"It sounds just like taking the bus," said Kevin. "Accept about five times more complicated, and where each stop is a universe instead of a street corner."

Guy nodded. "Yeah, I guess it's kinda like that."

"I believe we know which way the node lies," said Nome. "That first time that my own team happened upon this dimension, we came upon the same series of swirling colored lights that Dudeperson described. I recognize the configuration of these tree-oid structures, and I believe that I can lead us to the node."

"Is 'tree-oid' really a word?" Guy asked.

"Be quiet, Red!" Hester sternly ordered him. "As our prisoner, you will speak only when spoken to."

Guy lowered his visor. "Tree-oid is _not_ a word," he then said softly.

"Well, let's start making for that node," said Clair. "We don't know how long it will be before the Reds here find us."

"_Not very long at all!_" said a voice through a loudspeaker, from behind the group. Everyone turned quickly. A Red soldier in a tank was sitting behind them, its tungsten cannon aimed at the center of the group.

"Oh fuck, not this again!" Kevin grumbled.

"Everyone, listen!" Nome said just quietly enough that the tank driver couldn't hear. "We may be able to talk our way out of this. As long as we keep our statements reasonable, present Dudeperson as our captor, and do absolutely nothing to anger the tank driver, I believe that we can get through this with diplomacy alone. The important thing, however, is that we do _nothing_ to anger the tank driver."

With that, everyone turned back to face the tank. Nome was about to say something, when suddenly Kenny blurted out: "Wow, you look a lot like that guy we took out at the Fortress. Hank the Tank, was that his name?"

"YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!" the tank driver roared.

Nome turned in Kenny's direction, suddenly feeling a strong urge to slap him. But before he had a chance to, everyone had to scatter, because the tank let off a round from its cannon, which created a ball of fire where several members of Lime had been standing. Everyone raced in the opposite direction as the tank, as usually happened when they were being chased by an extremely angry person with a powerful and destructive weapon. Nome led the group, and soon the chaotic swarm of soldiers became more like a cloud as it cohered in loose formation behind the medic. The mad tank driver was now yelling at the top of his lungs in continuous bouts while at the same time firing wildly in front of him. But fortunately, none of his shots hit anything.

As the group hurriedly pressed on, the obelisks became closer and closer together. The Greens remembered this happening, the closer they had gotten to the center of the forest, which had contained the node. There was, of course, a second reason for running this way. As Nome had predicted would happen, a crunching sound came from behind the group. The tank had become lodged between two obelisks. The driver put the gear in reverse, but to no avail. The tank still would not move. He shouted one, final cry of defeat before Lime Squadron rushed out of hearing range. Then they were finally free of the tank driver.

Once everyone realized that they were no longer being pursued by the tank, the group slowed down a little bit. Soon, they were all sauntering at a peaceful pace. Ryan stared up at the strange trees out of curiosity. "Hey guys, there's structures up at the treetops. Some kind of buildings. I'm starting to think that people might have lived in this forest."

"We saw those when we were here the first time, as well," said Jess. "I texted a few of my friends about it when we were back in the normal universe, but no one had any ideas about who these people were. Who lived here, it's a complete mystery."

"We did," said Guy.

Everyone stopped and looked at him.

"Who did?" Hester asked.

"The people who are now the Red Army," Guy explained. "We lived in this forest. We had been living here for as long as anyone could remember. It was a peaceful, somewhat dull existence."

"The _Red Army?_" Wren asked, the surprise clear in her tone. "You guys used to live in _trees?_"

Guy nodded. "Yup, that's the truth. I know that it must seem ridiculous to you guys. So much has changed since then…"

"No shit," Patton commented.

Guy pointed to the structures directly above where the group was now standing. "This was the heart of the residential district. You see those six bridges? They connect to the other six sub-districts that the workers lived in, and from those places were two more bridges, over here and here, that lead to the central hall." He was constantly pointing at different places as he spoke, though it was difficult for Lime to follow his finger's focus very well. Some of the structures he pointed to were so high from the ground that they could hardly be seen from where Lime was standing. Even so, it was clear that Guy was telling the truth. He spoke with enough reverence that he was plainly going straight from memory.

Patton crossed his arms. "So, um, how'd you guys go from tree people to universal conquest?"

Guy looked down at the ground now, deep in thought. "The day when Vincent and his shadow creature came, that was when everything changed."

"Tell us more," Hester commanded.

"The fusion coil named Vincent teleported into our world, from the same swirling colored lights that we head towards now. He showed my people his great powers, to which we were all awed. Then he showed us holographic maps of the universes. We had only known our forest, so when we saw how much more there was to existence, we became entranced by his words. It was not long before he promised everyone that if they came to serve him, that the many universes he had shown us could be ours."

"Is that how it happened, then?" Nome asked, though it came out more as a verbal thought than a question. "The beginning of the Red Army."

Guy nodded slowly. "Well, the story isn't quite that simple. There were some on the ruling council who objected, and thought that Vincent's ways of war would lead our people to ruin. But then Vincent loosed his shadow creature on them. Ended their lives. And then, Vincent used those demonstrations to say that true power lay only with him."

"The shadow creature must be that same entity we saw in the Hockey Arena while we were matchmaking," said Skope. "Guy, is what you're talking about, did it look like an inky black mass and speak through people's thoughts?"

Guy nodded. "Yup, that's the same creature. I find it interesting that you faced it and lived."

"It captured us," said Nome. "It took us to a holding cell in a Red base somewhere in this alternate universe. But then we escaped."

"Ah," Guy said. "Anyways, after the ruling council had been altered to serve Vincent's will, Vincent had his shadow creature created weapons and vehicles for us to use in our campaign. Then he teleported us to the Fortress, which has become our new city and base of operations. It wasn't long before we established a teleporter network over to your universe, as well as the many other dimensions we've come across. And then our campaign for universal obliteration began."

"We really need to kill that fusion coil," Wren stated. "And his shadow creature as well."

"And the Hand," said Kevin. "Don't forget about that thing which could pop the universe out of existence any day now."

"Yup, we've talked enough," said Patton. He grabbed onto Guy's shoulder again. "C'mon, Red. We've got a swirly light portal-teleporter to find."

The group pressed on. During their walk, there were several occasions where Fred Oofig wanted to stop and say hi to all the obelisk trees. But remembering that Oofig tended to spontaneously light on fire whenever he said hi to anything, the others diligently prevented him from saying hi to any tree more than a couple of times. Guy Dudeperson brought up the idea that Oofig's tendencies (both fire and hellos) could be considered more than a little bit strange, to which the rest of the group did not disagree.

It wasn't long before Lime came upon a location that the Greens recognized all too well. Several obelisks had fallen over onto their sides to make the perimeter of a circular clearing. In its center was a cloud of swirling colored lights, the same ones that the Greens had seen before during their first time here, and what Guy had described to Patton. There was also an army of Reds standing about the place. Red soldiers walked everywhere, while many Warthogs watched from outside the obelisk perimeter. There were also several small structures that had been erected within the perimeter, what looked like mess halls, barracks, and a few outhouses. It seemed that the Reds had decided to set up a complete base here. Getting to the portal was not going to be easy.

With no other ideas, the members of Lime decided to try the same thing they had on the Fortress. Guy Dudeperson strolled out into the mass of other Reds, the other members of Lime right behind him. "These are my prisoners!" he shouted proudly.

The Reds, hopefully just out of interest, clustered around Lime's group. Several of them were crossing their arms over their chests. Suddenly, things weren't looking so good.

"Hey, isn't that the guy Headquarters told us to look for just a few minutes ago?" said one of the Red officers standing near the portal. He slowly started to walk over to Lime, his gaze unyielding. "Yeah, that's right. He's the guy who's said to have been masquerading around with a bunch of escapees, calling them his prisoners. Two guards in the Fortress were just found murdered, and this lot was determined to be the only possible killers. His permutations are exactly the same as the description Headquarters gave us."

Guy shook his head madly as the officer talked. "No, you're mistaken. The reason I look so similar is because the guy you're talking about is…my evil twin clone who was genetically engineered at birth…with superhuman strength and telekinesis and mindreading powers. Who is also capable of destroying the world, which is how he was able to overpower those guards. Um, yeah, that's right. You're just confusing the two of us."

The Reds whipped out their weapons and surrounded Lime within a circle of gun muzzles. "You are all under arrest," the officer stated. "Drop your weapons."

Jess put her visor up to Guy's ear and whispered to him: "_You FAIL at lying!_"

Lime was reluctant to drop their weapons, the memory of confiscation still fresh in their minds after their first capture by the Reds. But before they could, everyone suddenly started looking in another direction. An angry mechanical roar was emanating from somewhere across the perimeter. As Lime kept looking in the direction of the sound, a tank suddenly appeared. The tank was rolling sideways, with its treads oriented vertically and contacting the sides of obelisk trees. The scene of a sideways tank looked hopelessly ridiculous…yet also terrifying for much the same reason.

As it so happened, the driver was the same one they'd encountered just after entering the forest. "You killed my brother!" the driver shouted upon seeing Lime. His tank slowly inched along through the cramped mass of obelisk trees. Vengeance for his brother Hank the Tank was apparently all that mattered to this guy. This tank driver had been finding ways to try to fit the tank through the forest, ever so slowly, in pursuit of Lime and revenge. And now that the driver had found them, he was going to kill them, regardless of any Reds standing in his way. As the tank pulled closer in to the clearing, its sideways turret did its best to aim in Lime's direction.

"It's actually going to fire on us!" Ryan shouted.

It did appear that way, though the Reds surrounding Lime still didn't seem to have figured that part out. Looking around frantically, Nome spotted a grey rectangular device being worn on the tool belt of one of the Reds guarding his group. "I need this!" he shouted as he yanked it away. Before the Red could do anything, Nome somersaulted back to the center of Lime Squadron and slapped the device into a section on the back of his armor. His tacpad lit up, and he hit the activation button.

The tank fired. At the very same instant it did, a transparent blue dome formed itself around Lime Squadron. It was an armor ability called a Drop Shield. Nome had used the same kind of ability a week before, during his very first encounter with the Reds whilst returning to his original base. It was a temporary barrier that could block incoming projectiles. But it could only sustain a certain amount of damage. When the tungsten round hit it, the barrier vanished like a popped bubble. It had done its work, however. Lime had been entirely protected from the blast. But the Reds surrounding the barrier, however, were not. Upon impact with the barrier, the blast traveled around it, and the Reds guarding Lime Squadron were annihilated.

By now, even the Reds had all realized that the tank driver was not in his right mind. Gunfire broke out, directed in the tank's direction. Now believing that he was under attack from his own men, the tank driver began firing at the Reds this time. Structures exploded. People ran frantically. The entire base was in total chaos. Consequently, the swirling lights in the center of the clearing were now entirely unguarded. Lime Squadron took its opportunity.

Everyone raced for the teleporter. The cluster of swirling colored lights looked much the same as they had when the Greens had first seen them. The orbs floated whimsically about their confined territory. Yet the same aura of sadness and darkness remained as well. But right now, Lime did not have time to think about it. As soon as he and Dudeperson joined the rest of the group, Patton shoved Lucy's barrel straight up to Guy's helmet and shouted: "Activate it, now!" Guy pointed his right gauntlet at the cluster of swirling lights and hit a button on his tacpad. The instant he did, the lights responded by organizing themselves into a specific formation. Then a white orb of light appeared at the center of this formation. It was the same one the Greens remembered for their previous time here, and also the same type of orb they had seen the Hand teleport through above the Red Fortress. It slowly grew larger and larger as the seconds passed.

Skope looked behind the group and saw that the angry tank driver's tank was now in flames, and the other residents of the base were all turning in Lime's direction. "We need to go now!" he shouted back over to the rest of the group.

The white orb of light finally stopped growing and found a stable size. "Get in now, everyone!" Guy shouted.

The group began jumping in. _I really hope I don't have to get used to doing this_, Jess thought to herself as she jumped in to join her friends. The portal shrank and closed behind her.


	24. The Trap is Sprung

24 – THE TRAP IS SPRUNG

Travis Chamealon stepped slowly into the command dome of the _Avant Garde_. It was a much darker place than he had expected. Most of the light in the room came from the starlight filtering in through the dome. Shadows lay before him, held at bay only by the dull glowing of a holographic console at the circular room's center. Behind the console, made just barely visible by the light emitting diodes struggling to keep the darkness at bay, Travis thought he could see what looked like a command chair. Then as shape rose from this space. _He really does brood like a dragon, just like the rumors say_, Travis thought as he realized what he was staring at.

"Come forward, Travis Chamealon," said a deep yet deliberate voice.

Travis stood up a little straighter. The voice was strong, slow, and authoritative, yet at the same time harbored a powerful and merciless intent. The rumors were true again: Vorennius was a man whose very presence inspired fear as well as admiration. Chamealon suddenly looked down at the ground, realizing he had taken a step forward. And then he was talking towards the console. He wasn't sure if he was doing this of his own free will, or if the power of Vorennius' command was making it impossible for him _not_ to come forward.

Now that he was closer to the command chair, Travis could see the figure standing in front of it. Purple mixed with a secondary green, the hilt of a White Blade hanging from the hip, and a long curving visor, running across the helmet, that seemed to pierce into his being just by gazing at him. "Admiral Vorennius, it is an honor to meet you," was the statement that left Travis' lips.

"I hear that you have been on quite a journey," said Vorennius. "That you came upon the joint team the Green-Yellow Alliance sent into the alternate universe…to stop Vincent. I would have you tell me of this."

From the emphasis Vorennius put on the word "Vincent", Travis guessed that Vorennius was actually far more interested in the fusion coil's affairs than he was the travels of Lime Squadron. But in answer to the Admiral's question, he said simply: "I managed to capture one of the members of Lime Squadron. His name is Kevin Guinness, he's one of the Greens."

"I know of whom you speak," the Admiral said bluntly. "He will be interrogated soon. As for now, I want to hear what _you_ know."

"After the Reds attacked the Wilderness, I was taken captive," Travis began. "They put me in a room of shield walls and fired plasma grenades into it. It was the same thing that the Yellow mechanic did to me when I was being held captive at the Yellow base. The Reds stole the idea from them, must have."

The Admiral sighed. "I meant that I want to hear what you know of Lime Squadron. And perhaps the Red Army. While you were kept at the Red Fortress, did you ever see Vincent? Did you overhear anything from him?"

Travis shook his head. "Not really. After the Falcon I was piloting crashed, and the army of Reds suddenly came around the corner of the street we landed on, I caught a second long glimpse of a fusion coil that was _probably _him. But then I had to grab Guinness and get out of there as quick as possible, before the Reds arrived."

The Admiral again sighed. "Well then, what do you know of Lime Squadron?"

Travis looked down at the metal floor. "Not much either. I was with them during my escape attempt in the Falcon, but during that time I overheard nothing important regarding their mission. It was just 'we need to find these other people before we leave' and then 'I want to say hello to the sun', or something like that, and then the Falcon caught on fire somehow, and then everything went south as far as my original escape plan was concerned."

The Admiral's tone became far sterner. "You don't know anything or Lime Squadron, do you?"

Travis shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

"You were abducted by the Reds, taken to their main fortress, then participated in Lime Squadron's escape attempt, and yet somehow, _somehow,_ you have managed to avoid gathering any useful information on either the Reds or Lime Squadron, despite the fact that your assigned task was to be a spy. That is a truly amazing feat you have pulled off, Specialist Chamealon. A spectacular failure…of epic proportions."

Travis began nodding at the words "amazing feat" but then stopped abruptly at the words "spectacular failure of epic proportions", finally realizing what point the Admiral was making. "I-I did the best that I could given the situation," he stammered.

"Perhaps that is what you think, though you are woefully incorrect," the Admiral replied matter-of-factly. "Though it is clear that the job of secret informant does not suit you well by any definition. You should be given a new specialization."

Travis let out a sigh of relief. "Why, thank you, Admiral." Things were going to turn out all right after all, it seemed. He wouldn't be getting the promotion he had been thinking he would, but he was at least going to get a new occupation, which was wonderful considering how much he hated the job of informant. Everything was falling nicely into place—

The entire room suddenly shook violently, causing Guy to stumble and fall to the ground. At the same instant, the Admiral was shoved back into his command chair by the unexpected change in momentum of the room. As he got up, Travis thought he saw a tall shadow dart from the outskirts of the room and come behind the Admiral's command chair. "I am fine," the Admiral said quickly to this mysterious figure.

"What was that?" Travis asked. "It felt like the ship was just bombed or something!" He looked again at the space behind Vorennius' command chair, but the figure had vanished back into the darkness.

"Report!" Vorennius shouted at the console in the center of the room. Immediately, a three dimensional object erupted from the console. It was a map of a certain part of the ship. A giant red dot was flashing at one point on it. The Admiral walked over to the console and touched the dot. The picture changed to a camera's view of a hallway.

Along the hallway, five black curved objects had apparently crashed through the wall. Air was rushing through the holes, which could only mean that the pods had entered the ship from space. Vorennius touched a section of that deck's perimeter, and that part of the surface of the ship flashed green. The outflow of air stopped at the same moment. Now that an energy shield had been deployed over the holes in the hull to keep internal atmosphere on the ship, the Admiral turned his attention to the pods themselves.

Just as the camera view zoomed in closer to the pods, the surfaces of the pods suddenly pulled back like a lid, revealing a Yellow soldier in each pod. "Lemon Squadron," the Admiral breathed, giving no subtlety to the fact that he had encountered these soldiers before. As he spoke, the five Yellows hopped out of their pods, took stock of their surroundings, and immediately began running down the hall. One of the Yellows, with a robotic arm, was dragging another of the Yellows behind them. The Yellow being dragged was looking up at the lighting fixtures, apparently out of curiosity.

The _Avant Garde's_ artificial intelligence stated: "Sending security teams to intercept the invading force."

"Belay that order," said Vorennius suddenly.

Travis turned and stared at Vorennius in surprise. _Did I really just hear him correctly?_

Still addressing the AI, Vorennius continued: "Lock down all main access pathways, but leave a path of corridors open that lead Lemon Squadron to this location." He selected a location on the holographic map by touching that spot with his finger. The spot lit up with a bright dotted point, and from it suddenly stretched a white line that led through several corridors, to where Lemon Squadron was currently located. Door access switched to Open Status for all entryways along this outlined path.

Vorennius wanted to lead Lemon Squadron to a certain part of the ship, Travis realized. But why? The _Avant Garde_ had been infiltrated by the most capable squadron of soldiers in the Yellow Army, yet Vorennius was refusing to send his forces in to try to stop them. Looking at Vorennius as the Admiral stared at the situation, it looked almost as though the Admiral was at ease. At the same time the Admiral managed the Lemon Squadron situation, he was also looking at several other holographic windows, most of them seeming to be about his various campaigns on the planet XBOXL1V. Why was he so unconcerned with Lemon's invasion?

Travis addressed the Admiral. "Um, Admiral…ah, what exactly do you think you're doing? You do realize exactly who you're dealing with, don't you?"

The Admiral regarded Travis with only a fleeting interest. "Yes, of course. Does my reputation not precede me?" His attention went straight back to his campaign status windows.

"It's just that…um…shouldn't you send in the security teams? Do, you know, deal with Lemon Squadron?"

"That is not a necessary action," the Admiral replied. "I am the Admiral of the Main Fleet of Roster Teth and the leader of your Army. Do not question my actions. I will not ask you again."

"So then, you're just going to let Lemon Squadron run along the ship."

"That is the plan, yes," the Admiral replied. Then he turned to regard Travis with more of his attention. "I instructed you not to question me. Furthermore, I believe that our meeting has concluded. Is there a reason you still remain in this room?"

Travis crossed his arms. "I'm just watching you deal with Lemon Squadron. Or _not_ do so, as seems to actually be the case. But hang on just a minute, did I hear you say that you _intended_ for Lemon Squadron to infiltrate this ship?"

"That is correct," was all Vorennius said.

Travis continued to stare at the Admiral, who as still paying most of his attention to the campaign windows. "You're insane!" he finally blurted out. "You let them onto our Army's capitol ship intentionally, and you're not even doing anything about it! That's just crazy!"

Suddenly, Travis felt hands grab him from behind. As he struggled, he glanced behind and realized that two Purple soldiers were the ones who had taken him. "Huh, what's going on?" he asked confusedly.

From behind the holographic console, Vorennius was now staring directly at him. "Have you no deliberation over what you say?" the Admiral asked Travis slowly. "You know nothing of my plans."

"I should think that I know enough," Travis retorted.

The Admiral crossed his arms. "For your information, Chamealon, this ship is _not_ my central base of command. That purpose is served by a fleet I have stationed in slipspace, only a moment's jump from our location."

Travis stopped struggling against the guards as Vorennius' words sank in. "What?" The Admiral just continued to stare at him, as though he was a disobedient child needing discipline. No less confused, Travis asked: "If the _Avant Garde_ isn't your central command, then why did you bring it to this planet, and why are you on it?"

"This ship is a distraction," Vorennius explained. "A lure to keep the other Armies unaware of my real forces in slipspace. And with the arrival of Lemon Squadron, I can see that my plan has worked…quite wonderfully, actually. This ship is really nothing more than a trap for any elite forces the other Armies send after me, to get them out of the way before I launch my assault on Centerpoint City. I knew that once I revealed my presence, the Grand General of the Green Army would send his best after me, using his cleverest tactics to foil my countermeasures, and the Yellow Army is no less inventive, as you have just seen. The _Avant Garde_ is a means for me to rid the playing field of my opponent's best moves before the real game even begins. That is the reason why I brought this ship into realspace and allowed the other Armies enough information to know that I am on it."

Travis took a moment to think over what he'd just heard, then said: "I'm sorry, Admiral. I had no idea that you'd thought this far ahead. I won't make that mistake again, I promise you."

"That is correct," said Vorennius slowly. "You won't. I will not have someone serving within my Army who will question every decision I make. My Army must be composed of people I can trust, and you are not one of them."

"_Admiral?_" Travis asked.

Vorennius waved a gauntlet at the door to the command dome. "Guards, take Chamealon to the brig. I will decide what to do with him later."

Travis began to struggle again as the guards proceeded to drag him out of the room. "Admiral, please! Don't do this! I can still be of use to you! Admira—" The door slid shut.

With the Chamealon matter taken care of, Vorennius turned his attention back to the deck map where Lemon Squadron was proceeding through his maze. The five yellow dots were moving at a steady quick pace, and had almost reached the location at the end of the white path, the Deck 17 Motor Pool. He then opened up a new window which contained a list of the latest prototype models that the _Avant Garde_ science teams had developed. _Which of my new toys shall I send after the good Squadron first?_ Skimming down the list, the tip of his gauntlet settled on one. He queued up the Mantis Exoskeleton Prototype, and ordered a contingent to be sent to the motor pool. It would be very interesting to see how Lemon Squadron fared against a small army of these.

* * *

The energy shield over the entrance to his cell had served as Kevin's best friend for the last four hours, ever since he had been brought onto the _Avant Garde_. His friend was very consistent and unchanging, with its constant purple hue and subtle humming noise. But at least it was always there for him. _Dammit, am I lonely!_ Kevin realized for the umpteenth time.

The sound of a door opening ended the long silence that Kevin had been enduring. He looked up to see two guards stride into the hall of the cell block, escorting Travis Chamealon between them. Kevin got up and walked towards the shield wall of his cell. "Come to gloat over your prize, have you?" he asked Travis.

One of the guards deactivated the shield wall for the cell next to Kevin's. Travis looked at Kevin for a few seconds, with Kevin returning the Purple spy's gaze. As the two of them continued watching each other, Travis walked up to Kevin's cell…then went past it and stepped inside the adjoining cell. The guard reactivated the shield wall in the adjoining cell, trapping Travis inside the cell, and then both guards turned and left the cell block.

Kevin stared at the door the guards had left through, then back at Travis, then back at the door, then Travis again. _"…What?_"

Travis was staring at the floor, his posture slumped in apparent embarrassment. "I don't want to talk about it."

Kevin kept staring at Travis, no less interested in just what the fuck was going on. Travis still did not respond, however. Finally, Kevin gave up waiting for Travis to say anything and just settled on: "Okay." He went back to staring at his friend the shield wall. But then his curiosity got the better of him. He turned back to face Travis. "No seriously, what's going on?"

"_I said I don't want to talk about it!_" Chamealon snapped back.

Kevin backed away from the adjoining wall. "Okay, jeez." He decided to just leave Travis alone for awhile, and wait until the Purple had calmed down a little bit from whatever it was that had happened. Once Travis had simmered down some, Kevin would attempt to resume his conversation with him, and find out just what odd irony of the universe had led to his former captor being imprisoned right next to him.


	25. Multiverse Road Trip

25 – MULTIVERSE ROAD TRIP

The white light of the portal journey subsided, leaving Lime Squadron to stare out at a strange new world. Everyone stared at the landscape around them in a combination of wonder, confusion, and odd fascination. They were standing in a forest of short brown trees with voluminous clouds of leaves (or at least, what they _perceived_ to be leaves). The ground was a matted layer of thick green grass, and small flowers and bushes clustered in close together along the floor. Normally, this would have looked like a nice cheerful forest. But there was one particular thing about this place that made it look _anything but_ normal.

Everything was cube-shaped.

Absolutely everything.

The tree trunks were not round, but instead shaped like square brown towers that stretched up to their masses of leaves, which in turn were not so much branch-like as they were hundreds of green-spotted cubes clustered together at the tops of their respective "trees". Even the general shape of the landscape itself was derived from cubes: where the ground sloped downwards, the incline Lime was standing on revealed itself to be composed of layers of cubes of dirt and rock, all stacked in perfect fashion on top of each other. Even the flowers and bushed were in some way derived from cubes. Looking closer, Lime could see that the flowers were actually composed of many very tiny cubes of varying colors, and the bushes were no different in this respect.

Swiveling his helmet widely, Ryan was gaping. "Where the _fuck_…"

"You should know that we're no longer in the same universe as the Abyss," Guy Dudeperson informed everyone.

"No shit!" Wren agreed. "This whole entire place is themed around blocks and cubes!"

Suddenly Skope let out a surprised shout. Everyone turned in his direction.

"What is it?" Jess exclaimed.

Skope was pointing at the rest of the group. "Look down," he said slowly, with an err of scared nervousness.

Everyone did. What they saw gave them the same reaction as Skope. Once they had gazed long enough at themselves, they finally bothered to look at the rest of the group and saw that everyone else was just as they were.

"This is totally _not_ right," Kevin stated. "We're…"

"Derived from cubes," Nome finished for him. "As is everything else in this universe."

Every member of Lime Squadron looked like a Lego version of their normal selves: their arms and legs were long straight-edged rectangles that ended in cubular stumps where their gantlets should be. The same was true for their torsos, which were similarly geometric blocks of metal. And finally, their helmets had become boxes, with the front side colored something like their visor shades had been.

"How the fuck did we all become cardboard boxes all of a sudden?" Wren exclaimed.

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I believe that the nature of this universe is entirely derived from the base geometrical unit of a cube," Nome postulated. "Which implies that, according to the underlying logic permeating the very existence of this universe, everything must be composed of cubes, including all things which teleport into it."

Guy laughed. "If you think we look weird, just wait until you see the wildlife here."

Lime didn't have to wait long at all to see what Guy was talking about. Just after he finished speaking, a member of what the Red referred to as "wildlife" came into view, distantly off in the trees. It walked on two very thin yellow legs that supported a rectangular white body. On the top of this body was sported a box shaped head with two dark squares near the top middle, which Lime assumed were the creature's eyes. Jutting out from the head-cube was a yellow rectangle which had a smaller, red rectangle underneath.

"Is that a duck?" Amber wondered out loud.

"No, it's a chicken," said Jess. She looked at Amber, then back at the creature. "Why would you think that that's a duck? I mean, it's plainly a chicken."

Amber shook her head. "No, it's a duck. The white takes up much of the body, and the beak is really large."

"It's a chicken!" Jess protested. "It's so obvious!"

"How is it a chicken?" Amber exclaimed. "What kind of chicken have you seen that actually looks like that?"

"What kind of _duck _have you ever seen that looks like that?"

Guy chuckled as he watched he argument, shaking his helmet-cube in amusement. He probably knew what animal it really was, since he had clearly been to this universe before, though he was unwilling to share that information with anyone.

"Have either of you been to Earth?" Skope asked.

Both women shook their heads.

"So then how do either of you know what a chicken or duck actually look like?"

"Books," Clair offered.

"Which show chickens and ducks as they are in _our_ universe!" Kevin countered.

Guy began to double over with laughter. Everyone stared at him. After a moment, Patton approached the Red with his now-rectangular shotgun in hand.

"This conversation is getting rather stupid, don't you guys think?" Skope observed.

"I'll say," agreed Amber. "It's a duck, pure and simple."

Jess grumbled, but gave no further argument.

"This universe is magnificent, is it not?" Nome said with reverie while slowly swiveling his helmet-cube to gaze at the scenery around him.

"Is it?" Skope asked.

"Indeed," said Nome. He wandered over to a small rise in the ground, where a cube of dirt with grass on top sat above the rest of the forest floor. "All of the cubes that make up the landscape in this world are exactly the same size. Look." He extended his arms at the dirt cube. "This cube, according to the distance measuring program on my heads-up display, is _exactly_ one meter. Exactly!" He then made his way back to the group. "Do you all realize what this means? Do you?" He looked around at everyone expectantly.

Several other members of Lime looked at each other. It was unusual for Nome to seem this energetic and excited. "No," said Jess. "What does it mean?"

Nome held up his arm in lecture posture. "It means that if we count a certain number of cubes in any north-south-east-west direction, the distance we have traveled is that many meters…exactly!"

Hester was nodding her helmet-cube as Nome spoke. "Yes, I see…wait, _why_ is this at all important, again?"

"The cube implication has a much broader meaning about this universe," said Nome. "It means that everything in this universe is straight-edged, set in perfect rows, and all pieces of it can fit in exactly with all other pieces of it. Perfect symmetry. It is wonderful. Beautiful. Magnificent!"

"Um, what universe are_ you_ from, again?" Guy asked the medic.

Nome continued trying to explain about cubes and how this related to the perfect order and symmetry of the universe, but all of it seemed to go over the other's heads. It was a new thing to see Nome so pumped up about something, as he was usually a meditating and introspective kind of person. So they let him keep talking, more because they wanted to catch of good glimpse of him while he was energetic then because they were understanding what he was talking about.

A few minutes into Nome's strangely enthusiastic monologue, Guy suddenly cut in. "Um, guys, it's starting to get dark. We need to leave this universe, like, right now."

The others looked up. Indeed, the sky was starting to turn a purple-blue, and the white cube of a sun could now be seen steadily approaching the mountains bordering the horizon. "Yup, it's getting to the end of the day, all right," said Patton. "This planet has some really short days. Don't see why that means we need to leave ASAP, though."

"We just do," said Guy. "Trust me on this." He extended his arm and hit the place on that rectangular appendage that must have been where his tacpad was located. At once, the portal reappeared. One glowing white cube appeared out of existence, which quickly expanded into many cubes connected to each other, an irregularly-surfaced ball of cubes. The portal expanded until it reached the same size as it had the last time Lime had used it, and which point it stopped growing. "We are on a preset hyperdimensional course through the multiverse," the Red then explained. "So I can call the portal at any location at any universe that is along this path. And now it's time to go."

Nome was still avidly looking around the world. "If I could just stay a moment longer, to appreciate the symmetry of the components of the landscape…"

"No!" Guy protested. "We need to leave now!"

"You will tell us why," said Hester. By now, the sun had gone below the horizon. Blue-black darkness was creeping along the sky, and stars were beginning to emerge.

"Some really nasty creatures come out at night," Guy answered. "Not animals. Just…nightmares. Things that it would be best if we didn't have to fight."

Hester's arms were crossed. "Uh-huh."

"I've had to take a few liberties," said Guy as he turned back towards the portal. "We're going on a bit of a shortcut. The next two universes we would normally be going to are both extremely dangerous. The first one is a ragged warzone inhabited by people who haven't invented armor suits like ours or even explored outer space yet, so they would probably think of us as hostile due to our appearance. They're all really good at sniping too, which would complicate matters. And the other universe is currently being invaded by a subterranean alien species called the Locust. Best to avoid that one as well. Point is, I'm having to take us _way_ outside of the spaces we'd normally be traveling through."

"Whatever works," said Patton. "I think you know by know what will happen to you if any of us even so much as suspect that you're trying to pull something."

Guy nodded before checking his tacpad. "The portal is calibrated for our shortcut. Is everyone ready?"

Lime Squadron responded by stepping diligently into the portal, Patton dragging the Red at gunpoint along with him. The sphere of light shrank and disappeared just as the last sparks of daylight left the night sky.

* * *

Lemon Squadron crept along the dark corridors of the _Avant Garde_, paying caution with every step. Things were _not_ going according to plan. When their radiation-resistant OLAV pods had crashed into the ship, the Purples were supposed to be taken off guard. But that didn't seem to be the case. In fact, they had encountered no one ever since coming on board. Not a single Purple soldier. Normally the absence of enemies was a good thing. But in this case, it was terrifying. The _Avant Garde_ was supposed to be the central command of the Purple Army, outside of Roster Teth. So where the hell were all the Purples?

Add that to the fact that Lemon Squadron was clearly being led along a preset path throughout the ship. At every corridor intersection they had come to, there had been exactly one unlocked door leading onwards. They had tried to divert from this path by blasting their way through a door that was locked. But every door they had tried that with had proven to be backed by a full thirty centimeters of reinforced titanium, which was impossible to blow through without taking the part of the ship they were on along with the door. So, the situation was that they were trapped on a Purple capitol ship, within a trap laid out by only the most notorious mastermind of strategy in probably the entire war, with their only option being to press forward in the direction which they knew Vorennius wanted them to go in.

It was times like this when Hearts would really have liked Patton to accompany them. He had a way of being both extremely angry and imperturbable at the same time, and probably would have come up with a way of dealing with this situation. But he was in another universe, along with Hester and the rest of Lime Squadron. Instead, Lemon had Brain to deal with, a former Blue who was more interested in the corridor's authentic color-alternating lighting than he was the immediate situation at hand. His focus was constantly on what shade of near-white he thought the lighting would change to next, be it sky blue or pink light purple. That was what he as good for. Which was great, as far as Lemon was concerned. Absolutely fucking great.

The group came to yet another corridor intersection, which had doors leading off in three other paths, split off ninety degrees from each other. Deryn walked slowly around the perimeter of the intersection, trying each of the doors. Locked…locked…unlocked! Yet again, exactly one door through which they could continue. And of course, the door they had just come through slid shut behind them, locking itself and thereby preventing them from retracing the path they had come from. Everyone gathered around the unlocked door. Deryn took point, aiming down the direction of the soon-to-be-revealed pathway with her designated marksman rifle so that she could cover the others in the event that they did finally come upon enemies. Hearts hit the switch, the door slid open, and everyone (except Brian) reflexively tensed for enemy contact.

Another empty corridor awaited them.

Deryn lowered her rifle. "Damn."

The five of them headed down the corridor, Lemon's cautiousness beginning to be replaced by annoyance. They had gone through so many corridor intersections now that this routine was quickly becoming monotonous. But that was before they gazed upon the door at the other end of the hallway. Unlike the ones they had come upon previously, this one was much larger and wider. A track or grid extended from the door, down the hallway towards Lemon, which was clearly intended for a cart or other large cargo carrier to be pushed along it.

"I think we've finally reached somewhere," said Tom.

_This can only be the location Vorennius wants us to find_, Hearts thought silently to himself, though he was sure that the rest of Lemon was thinking the exact same thing. He approached the cargo door and hovered his gauntlet above the door's activation switch. Everyone's weapons had been ready for a long time now, but there was still that familiar feeling of anticipation that he had right before a battle was about to begin.

He hit the switch. The door buzzed open to reveal a gigantic illuminated chamber, with walls reaching many tens of meters above its grated floor. The chamber was huge; even without considering its volume, just the area of its floor alone was nearly half the size of the canyon in the Halothrii Wilderness. The entire chamber was also completely empty.

The group lowered their weapons, all but Inez exhaling exhausted breaths. "Does it end?" Deryn moaned. "_Another_ empty room!"

"We're still playing this same stupid game?" Hearts exclaimed in frustration. Then he raised his voice even louder and shouted around the room: "Vorennius, I know you can hear us! Enough with this stupid charade. Send us some enemies, you coward!"

Almost on cue, the group could suddenly hear something off in the distance, sounding as though it was coming from underneath the chamber they were standing in, but getting closer…and louder. A mechanical resounding engine, like hydraulics lifting something through a large shaft. As the seconds passed, that sounds resolved into more sounds. It wasn't just one thing on its way to meet Lemon. It was many.

Lemon readied their weapons instinctively. "Finally, a battle," Inez stated. "About time."

Around the perimeter of the room, roughly a dozen depressions in the floor opened up to reveal elevator shafts. Lemon looked around, becoming conscious of just how many enemies had come to fight them. Something had begun to rise out if each shaft, a wide metal head with a broad snout that somewhat resembled a nose. Its two arms contained the weapons: what looked like a Gatling gun or rotary cannon sprouted from its right arm, and on its left the mech sported what could not more obviously be a missile launcher. Five huge barrels opened outwards from a large metal block, which had to be the missile storage compartment. As the lift carried the mech higher Lemon could see that the head and arms were followed by a curiously small torso and two very long spindly metal legs, upon which the head, torso, and arms were supported.

The lifts finally reached the same level as the motor pool floor, and all twelve mechs stepped off while aiming their turrets at Lemon Squadron. Hearts barely had time to say "Oh shit!" before the mechs loosed their first salvos of missiles at Lemon. The group dive-rolled out of the way as the center of the room became fireball of fury, with sixty surface-to-surface missiles all colliding at roughly the same location on the floor. The sound was deafening, though somewhat lessened by the audio-reduction programs in all of Lemon's helmets. As the missiles finished exploding, a wave of superheated air erupted from the center of the room and expanded outwards to meet Lemon. They all braced with their arms instinctively, though their armor and energy shields prevented them from taking any physical damage from the heat.

"Any one of these things is powerful enough to take out an army of Scorpion Tanks!" Deryn shouted into her radio as she strafed throughout the perimeter of the room, trying her best to evade future missile strikes. "And Vorennius sent us _twelve _of them?"

"He must really want us dead," said Tom as he sprinted out of the way of another salvo of five missiles. "Can't say I blame him, though. If my capitol ship was being invaded by us, then I'd probably want us dead pretty bad too."

"Hey, guys!" came a shout from across the room. Lemon looked over to find Brain standing at the opposite end of the room, where he must have rolled to when he dodged the missiles. "I'm coming over to you!" the former Blue shouted.

"No!" Hearts shouted. "Do not come over!"

Of course Brian did not listen. The instant Hearts started shouting, Brian took that as a go-ahead sign (not being able to hear very well over the constant exploding of missiles) and began sprinting _right across the middle of the room._ All twelve mechs turned in Brian's direction as the impulsive Yellow entered their view. Lemon could hear their missile launchers loading up. _He's going to die_, realized Hearts. _Nothing me or my team can do about it. Well, at least we won't have to put up with him anymore. Goodbye, Brian._

The mechs unleashed their missiles, surrounding Brian in a fiery cloud of smoke and shrapnel. Hearts raised his gauntlet to the transmitter switch on the side of his helmet to inform the rest of Lemon that Brian was dead. But just before his finger reached the switch, he saw movement immerging from the cloud of smoke in the center of the room. _No! That's completely impossible…_ Brian came running out of the smoke cloud at full trot, rushing over to Lemon and stopping right in front of Hearts.

Hearts just stared at Brian. "I'm here!" the former Blue shouted excitedly once he realized the Hearts was looking at him.

"I don't mean to sound ungrateful," said Hearts. "But how the fuck are you still alive? I mean, those missiles…how?"

"They all missed me," Brian explained.

"They what?"

"They all landed alongside me," said the former Blue. "And my energy shields absorbed the damage from the blasts. Really lucky, right?"

By now Deryn, Tom, and Inez had joined them. Deryn kept looking back and forth between Brian and the smoke cloud in the center of the room, which by now had mostly cleared out. Apparently the mechs were wondering the exact same thing as Lemon, because even they were looking back and forth between the smoke and each other. But after a moment, the mechs decided it was time to get Lemon over with, because they all turned to face the Squadron.

Hearts turned to Brian. "Blue, you are a lucky bastard. But we can discuss that later. For now, I need you to go hide in that corner." He pointed to a corner of the motor pool which he hoped would be out of the way.

Brian nodded and trotted towards that location. And now, it was Lemon's turn to take the fight to the mechs. The four of them scattered in an ordered formation, each member of Lemon making for one of the mechs. Deryn, Tom, and Hearts sprinted around the group of two-legged vehicles, making all of them follow their path. One of the mechs stepped into Deryn's path suddenly and raised its left leg off of the floor. Deryn diverolled out of the way just as a huge metal foot came crashing down at the exact spot she had been a second before. The mech began turning around, still hellbent on finding Deryn, when rounds from an assault rifle pelted off it its head from another direction. Hearts and Tom stood side by side, hailing the mech with automatic fire. The mech turned in their direction, as did the others in the room as well. Deryn reached the other two Yellows just as Hearts and Tom started to run in her direction. Realizing just in time what they were running from, Deryn had to dive roll a second time to avoid another salvo of missiles. All three of them began running in a panicked frenzy about the room.

While all this was happening, Inez snuck up behind the mech closest to her, which was firing at the other three members of Lemon. Inez leapt, her armor boosting her height enough that she landed on top of the mech's head. There was a hatch door just behind the snout. She yanked it open to find a Purple soldier inside the pilot's compartment. He was looking at his viewscreen, which was showing the mech's crosshairs chasing after the rest of Lemon. "C'mon, die you motherfuckers!" he shouted at the screen. "Die!" Then he realized that light was falling on the screen, and looked behind to see Inez.

"Well, you heard yourself," said the Yellow coldly. "Die." She ended the Purple's life with one shot to the visor, then flung the body out with her robotic arm.

Hearts, Deryn, and Tom were busy staying alive, dodging the missile strikes and occasional automatic fire from the mech's Gatling guns, when suddenly one of the mechs turned and fired a missile salvo at the nearest mechs around it. Caught completely by surprise, the mechs stumbled and fell over.

"She's finally hijacked one," said Deryn. "Took her long enough!"

The hijacked mech walked over to one of the depressions in the floor, trampling over another unsuspecting mech in the process. Inez's mech stood on the floor depression. "Come on," said Inez's familiar toneless voice through the mech's loudspeaker. "This vehicle has clearance. We need to go." Lemon now knew that the floor depressions were actually the floors of lifts, and wanting to get out of this chamber as soon as possible, began running for the lift. Brian had also figured out the same idea, as he joined Lemon on the lift.

The instant the former Blue set foot on the floor depression, the lift began to rise. The floor depression morphed into a platform as it left the ground of the motor pool. The remaining enemy mechs had, by now, figured out some of what was going on. They fired at Inez's mech, but Inez kept the enemy down by peppering them with fire from her Gatling gun. As Lemon's platform rise ever higher in the room, the other lifts opened up as well, bringing enemy reinforcements of a dozen more mech. "How many of these does Vorennius have?" Deryn exclaimed. This was, fortunately, the point at which the platform rose into the ceiling. A depression on the ceiling opened up to reveal a shaft leading to the higher levels of the ship. The newly arrived army of mech reinforcements noticed the lift just as Lemon passed out of their sight, and the entirety of the squad's surroundings became the elevator shaft.

Hearts let out a sigh. "Glad that's done with!"

"Me too!" Brian shouted.

"I somehow doubt it," said Tom. "Vorennius most certainly has more stuff waiting for us at the top of this shaft. Don't forget that the Admiral also has control over where this shaft takes us."

"We'll deal," said Deryn.

"And besides," said Hearts. "We have a mech on our side now. I say that once we get out of this shaft, it's time to catch us an Admiral!"

The elevator continued upwards to whatever other challenges Vorennius had in store for them.


	26. Invasion of the Bipeds With Visors

26 – INVASION OF THE BIPEDS WITH VISORS

It was a bright and sunny morning in the magical land of Equestria. All about the town of Ponyville, the citizens of the city were emerging from their houses to begin their day. One such pony was Twilight Sparkle, who burst out of the library's red door, her purple and indigo fur glinting in the bright sunlight. Following her was a short and stout young dragon, named Spike, Twilight's friend and assistant. The two of them headed for Ponyville's marketplace. Twilight was planning to meet up with her friend Applejack, from whom she would buy some apples and probably socialize a bit.

Several other ponies popped out of their houses as Twilight and Spike walked by. Twilight said good morning to Daisy, who had begun watering the flowerbed of daisies outside her house. Daisy tried to reply, but had a pitcher of water in her mouth, so instead just managed with a nod and a grunt. The next pony Twilight saw was Lily, who enthusiastically waved hello to her as she passed by. As they neared the marketplace, they came upon the brilliantly pink and white colored Rose, who burst out of her house carrying a bundle of rose buds in her mouth. She also managed a grunt for a greeting. Even so, the encounter made Twilight feel good. Ever since she had come to Ponyville to study the magic of friendship, she had slowly learned to become more socially engaged. After saying hello to three _whole _ponies this morning, she was feeling really pumped, and looked even more forward to meeting Applejack at the marketplace. Today was going to be an interesting day, she could feel it.

"_Well, hi!_" said a very loud and overly enthusiastic voice off to Twilight's side. She looked to find her friend Pinkie Pie, a pink–furred pony with voluminous magenta hair.

"Pinkie Pie," said Twilight. "Good morning."

"Morning Twilight!" said Pinkie while hopping energetically up and down. "I'm going to the marketplace to buy some apples!"

"Hey, we're going there too!" said Spike.

"That's wonderful!" Pinkie shouted. Then she jittered slightly, her hair and tail jiggling as she vibrated. After about five seconds she stopped and said "Phew! Not another one!"

"Pinkie, is everything okay?" Twilight asked.

Pinkie shook her head. "It's the sense!" she exclaimed. "The tingly jittery feeling I have when bad things are about to happen. I've had a doozy of them this morning, and they're only getting worse."

Twilight's eyes widened. Pinkie's Pinkie Sense was a special ability she had that could predict when something bad was about to happen in the immediate future. She had used it to save construction workers from a falling building once, and had also saved her friends from falling flower pots on several occasions, of which they had always been grateful. In general, the more jitters Pinkie had with her sense, the greater in magnitude the "thing" would be that happened. The fact that pinkie was having a particularly bad case of jitters was therefore not good news.

"We should go to my lab," said Twilight. "I can analyze you there, maybe figure out what's going on."

"Are you sure?" Spike asked. "That didn't really work last time, did it?"

Pinkie shook her head back and forth madly. Then she pointed with her hoof down the street. "I'm pretty sure I know where the thing is that's going to happen. The closer I've come to the marketplace, the worse my jitters have been getting. It's the marketplace, I just know it!"

"The marketplace…" Twilight said, thinking.

At the exact same time, Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike exclaimed: "_Applejack!_" Spike hopped on top of Twilight, and then all three of them began racing down the street frantically. Fortunately, they were already quite close to the marketplace. Even still, the seconds were ticking madly by as the ponies raced to save their friends from some unseen course of events. Pinkie, with her boundless supply of energy, zoomed ahead of Twilight. The pink blur raced across the bridge leading above the river running through the town, before stopping on the other side and shouting "Come on. We have to hurry!" Twilight gritted her teeth and trotted as hard as she could. Within the next moment she had joined Pinkie, and the two of them continued, with Spike still on Twilight's back, to the marketplace.

They finally reached their destination about thirty seconds later. The place was crowded, as usual, with ponies meandering to and fro among many dozens of booths selling goods. Twilight and Pinkie searched frantically for the familiar booth of Applejack, which was always brimming with apples. It was Pinkie who spotted it first. She pointed with her hoof. "Over there!" Applejack was selling a customer a bag of red apples. The customer finished and left just as Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike arrived.

"Well, howdy!" Applejack greeted. "Say, you all look a little short of breath. Is something the matter?"

"My Pinkie Sense!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Something bad is going to happen in this marketplace, but we have no idea what it is!"

"Well gosh!" Applejack exclaimed. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Just look around," said Twilight. "See if you can spot anything that might cause an accident, or something similar to that."

The three of them looked around. And then looked again. But nothing seemed out of place, as far as they could tell. Everyone else seemed to be having a decent time. Rose had begun to set up her flower booth, Daisy was handing out tickets for an upcoming play, and even more booths were being set up as she watched. At the same time, a tan-furred male pony with an hour glass for a cutie mark was cautiously walking about the marketplace with some kind of flashing device in his mouth, as though he was using it to try to find something. However, she could not see anything that might suggest an accident.

"I don't see anything," said Pinkie. "But wait, Twilight!"

"What is it?" Twilight asked.

"I'm not jittering anymore!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Twilight paid attention to Pinkie, and realized that she was right. The jitters the pink pony had been having when they entered the marketplace were entirely gone now. "You're right," she said.

"And nothing out of the ordinary seems to be happening," said Applejack. "Maybe it was all in your head."

"I don't think that's it," said Pinkie. "My sense is always trying to tell me something."

"But nothing's happening," said Twilight. "And after all, just because your sense hasn't been wrong yet doesn't mean that it's infallible. Maybe it can be wrong, and this is just the first time."

"Maybe…" said Pinkie, sounding in no way convinced.

Twilight let out a sigh. "Well, I think we've done about all we can. If something is going to happen, or isn't, I don't see what we can do about it, aside from just wait here. Applejack, please let me know if anything bad seems like it's about to happen."

"Sure thing, Twilight," Applejack said while nodding.

Resolved that she had done as much as she could to rectify any possible situation, Twilight began to walk back towards her home, the library. She was almost out of the marketplace when she suddenly realized that she had forgotten to do what she had originally set out to the marketplace to do, which was to buy some apples from Applejack. She let out a second sigh and turned around.

"What is it?" said Spike.

"We still need to get some apples," Twilight replied.

"Oh yeah that's right!" the baby dragon exclaimed.

They headed back into the marketplace. As they reentered the throngs of crowds, Twilight reflected that this was certainly turning out to be an interesting day, though perhaps not for the reasons she would have liked. She had never been a fan of false starts, much less false disasters. But then again, a false disaster was certainly better than a real disaster. Pinkie's Pinkie sense had never conformed to her prediction methods. It was completely unreliable, and therefore was difficult to use in any practical means. Twilight was not at all surprised that it had turned out to be wrong for once. The Pinkie Sense was fallible. And the instance that had occurred this morning was perfect scientific proof—

Without warning, a huge ball of white light appeared in the center of the marketplace with a deafening _whoosh_ sound. It then quickly expanded in size until it dominated most of the establishment. Ponies screamed in shock and began running with frenzied panic all over the place, trying to escape as quickly as possible. Twilight had to step back as a group of several children rushed past her. Many of the stalls had been blown over by the air displacement created by the ball of light. Foodstuffs and other commodities were rolling all over the place to be trampled upon by frenzied ponies. The whole place was in chaos.

That was when the ball of light shrank and faded away almost as quickly as it had come. Twilight felt a second rush of air as the atmosphere filled in the absence of the ball of light. At the other end of the marketplace, Twilight could see Pinkie and Applejack. They both appeared to be safe, thankfully. Applejack's stall of apples had been blown over, but aside from that nothing else appeared to be wrong. Both of them were staring at the place where the ball of light had been. It was now Twilight's turn to follow their gaze.

In the place where the ball of light had been was now something far stranger than the ball of light could ever have aspired to be. Roughly a dozen strange creatures stood in a group, staring out at the ring of curious ponies surrounding them. Each creature stood on two legs instead of four, and the appendages that would have served as their front legs instead came out from their sides above the hip and ended in fingers. In place of eyes, their faces instead contained some kind of visor-like organ which Twilight figured must serve the same purpose as eyes. For skin, each creature was wearing what appeared to be a metal carapace that covered their entire body. The creature's carapaces were of a few different colors. Twilight counted that six of the creatures had green colored carapaces, six had yellow, one had orange, and one had red. Each creature had a secondary color of carapace on the shoulders and knees, and these colors had more variation among the creatures than did the primary colors. Each creature also carried at least one metal instrument on their person. Some of the creatures carried their instruments in their hands, others slung on their backs, and some carried one in each.

From the way that the creatures were looking out at the ponies surrounding them, they seemed almost as baffled as the ponies were. In particular, one of the Yellows exclaimed "_Where in the fuck?_" This creature carried a short-barreled metal instrument in its hands, which it held out threateningly, aiming one end of the instrument's barrel at the ponies.

Another of the Yellows walked over to the Red and grabbed its shoulder with one of its top appendages. "Where did you take us, Red?" The voice was female, yet more stern in tone than anyone Twilight had ever heard talk before.

"I told you that I had to take us on a bit of a detour!" the Red stammered.

The Yellow with the short-barreled metal instrument walked over to the Red. "Oh, is that what this place is supposed to be then? A _detour?_"

"I had to take us outside of Xbox Live, outside of our multiverse," the Red nervously explained. "Otherwise we would have had to travel through universes far more dangerous, and it would probably have taken us a lot longer…"

"You took us outside the _multiverse?_" one of the Greens shouted at the Red. This creature had a particularly long metal instrument slung over its back, most of the length of which was a thin barrel. "What does that even mean? If we're not even in the same multiverse anymore, then where the hell are we?"

"Ponyland, apparently," said another of the Greens. This creature wasn't carrying many weapons per se, but its head was covered in blinking machinery that looked as though it was an add-on to the carapace. It spoke with an enthusiastic female voice that reminded Twilight a little bit of Pinkie Pie. The creature turned to face the ponies and waved with one of its top appendages. "Hello, everyone!"

Immediately, the Yellow with the stern female voice shouted at the Green: "Stop! Do not communicate with them. They could be hostile."

The Green threw up its arms in surprise. "What? They're _ponies!_ Just look!"

"They may appear that way," said the stern Yellow. "But you still need to consider the fact that these are alien entities. They could be extremely dangerous in ways you cannot possibly imagine."

This was the moment Twilight chose to insert herself into their conversation. "Hello!" she called out to the creatures. "Um, welcome to the land of Equestria. This is a town called Ponyville. The ponies here mean you no harm, as long as you don't mean _us_ any harm."

"Boss, they speak English!" exclaimed a third Yellow. This one carried a huge thick-barreled metal instrument on its back and spoke with a loud young male voice. "That means we can actually talk to them!"

"I have ears, Hobar," the first Yellow replied.

"Yes, we speak your language," said Twilight. "And we have heard everything in your conversation. Um, did I hear one of you correctly, say that you're from another multiverse. What is that?"

"Nothing that concerns you!" shouted the Yellow that had spoken last.

Twilight took a step back. "Wow, I'm sorry! Look, we are of peace. I've said that already!"

"Mmmmmmmmmmm," commented one of the Greens analytically. "Perhaps the pony-oid extraterrestrial speaks the truth. I do not see any weapons among the residents of this town. Furthermore, as they have indeed been able to follow this conversation, these creatures are clearly sentient, and therefore conscious of our retaliation should they decide to pose a threat to us. I believe that we should trust them."

"Did you just call us pony-oid?" Twilight responded. "We are ponies, for your information. One hundred percent. There's no '-oid' involved. Furthermore, I don't think 'pony-oid' is even a word."

"Oh, he does that all the time," the Red interrupted. "We were walking through this alternate dimension of weird, really tall metal trees, and he called them 'tree-oid'. Nome, he just says stuff like that. We've all gotten used to it."

"Shut up, Red!" shouted the Yellow with the short-barreled metal instrument. "We should give them no more information than necessary!"

"I don't give a fuck," said the Red. "I'm still your prisoner, remember?"

"You keep prisoners?" Twilight asked. "Who, exactly, are you people?"

"We're a team called Lime Squadron," said the Yellow called Hobar. "Sent by our universe to stop an evil sentient fusion coil from popping our universe out of existence. We have journeyed through many a universe in pursuit of this individual and his powerful weapon, a giant hand with a pointy finger on it."

"Hobar," the other Yellow growled. "When I mentioned that we shouldn't give the extraterrestrials any unnecessary information…um, where exactly were you, mentally speaking, when I said that?"

"Here," said the Yellow called Hobar. "Ish." He shrugged.

"What's a fusion coil?" said Pinkie Pie as she slowly trotted up to the group of bipeds. She had been cowering in the far reaches of the group of ponies surrounding Lime, panicking, as she normally did during potentially dangerous situations such as this. But after seeing that these strange creatures meant no harm, she now felt safe to socialize with them.

One of the Greens, carrying what looked like a flamethrower on his back, massaged the bottom of his head's carapace. "Um, it's a glowing box, basically."

"And it's evil?" asked Twilght.

"Oh yeah!" confirmed the female Green with the enthusiastic voice and elaborate headgear. "It always gets really angry and tries to vaporize us with these really huge orange balls called Kill Balls."

"It's a glowing box," the male Green with the really long metal instrument on his back. He held out his upper appendages. "About as tall as you are, maybe a bit shorter. Its center is the actual core, which glows green most of the time."

"I've seen it glow red," countered a female Yellow with a similar instrument slung over her back. She spoke with a serious, stern voice, though not as stern as the other Yellow who also spoke that way. Also, this Yellow's voice had a figment of confidence that the other female Yellow lacked.

"I think the color it glows depends on its mood or something," said the Yellow called Hobar.

The confident female Yellow nodded. "Yeah, Vincent is shaped like a box about a meter tall, with a core that glows green most of the time, but can glow yellow, orange, or red depending on his mood. He is kind of angry and cynical most of the time. But he does have a very deep personality. He's very resourceful and opinionated on many issues, and can be pretty good at maintaining a conversation over a long period of time—"

"Stone, really?" demanded the angry Yellow with the short-barreled metal instrument. "I know that you and Vincent were living together for a couple of days, but I don't think the extraterrestrials need to know all the intricate details of whatever relationship you had going on with it."

The Yellow who had been talking, apparently called Stone, crossed her upper appendages and nodded back at the other Yellow. "Yeah, maybe not."

The Green with the flamethrower finished for Stone: "So basically, it's a glowing box of many colors, that has telekinetic powers, an extremely neurotic personality, and wants to pop the universe because it thinks that all humans are evil and wants to replace all life in the universe with its own kind, fusion coils."

"Have any of you seen anything like that in this universe?" asked the female Yellow with the extremely stern and authoritative voice. "Any sightings whatsoever?"

The ring of ponies surrounding Lime returned only blank, confused stares.

"None of these creatures has seen anything, so we need to move on," grumbled the angry Yellow.

"You don't want to stay with the ponies?" asked the female Green with the elaborate headgear.

"No, I don't!" the angry Yellow exclaimed. "Everything in this place is colorful, bright, sunny, and cheerful. And I don't like it. It makes me suspicious. So the sooner we get out of here, the better."

"I think everything looks nice," said the orange colored biped. "Oh, look at the sun! So pretty! And the clouds as well! I should like to say hello to everything here."

"You're not about to burst into flame again, are you?" asked the Green with the really long metal instrument on his back, to the orange colored biped.

"Yeahhh…no," the orange biped answered. "But I am feeling kinda toasty. Just a little bit." The rest of the group turned to stare at him. "I think we should leave soon," the orange biped resolved.

"I agree," said the Red. "Right now, the Hand is stationed at its construction facility, on that red island you were all at before. But I don't know how much longer it will remain there before it departs for another mission, so Patton and Oofig are right, we should leave as soon as possible."

The angry Yellow, whom Twilight now knew was called Patton, turned towards the Red. "Well, thank you for proving my point, but I wasn't making a request. I was giving you an order."

"Boss, you seem really on edge," said a fifth Yellow. This one hadn't spoken before. It had a female voice, soft yet focused. Like the enthusiastic Green, this Yellow also had lots of blinking gismos on her helmet. And on her waist was a belt containing several small boxes with red crosses on them, as well as several metal tools that looked as though they might be used for mechanic work.

"I am on edge," said Patton. "It's this place. It's so cheerful that it's driving me nuts. Red, open the portal already!"

The Red nodded. "Yeah, fine." He scanned the surroundings of the marketplace with his visor. After a moment, he settled his gaze on one location, the space right in front of the marketplace entrance, where a shallow puddle of water covered the ground from where something had spilled during the commotion of the white light's arrival. He aimed the gauntlet on his left upper appendage at this location and tapped something on it with a finger from the opposite appendage. "Everyone," the Red called out to the surrounding ponies. "I'm going to generate the portal again. It is perfectly safe, and will be set in a location where nothing else will be damaged or broken. So when you see the portal, please just remain calm."

The Red tapped his gauntlet a second time. Everyone stared at the entrance area of the marketplace. Nothing happened.

Twilight suddenly turned at a loud sound from off in the distance. A few blocks beyond the boundaries of the marketplace, a house was glowing a brilliant white light from inside. "Oh no," she exclaimed, having figured out what was coming. Sure enough, the house floated off its foundation, twisting and cracking into many different pieces as a ball of expanding white light caused the house to swirl around it like some odd kind of tornado. A pony named Bon Bon ran out of the house screaming just as the house's foundation left the ground. It was only a few moments later that all traces of the house, swirling around the portal in fragments, vanished into the white light, leaving only the glowing ball standing in its place.

"Oh, shitfuck!" commented the Red as he watched this happen. He looked back and forth a few times between the entrance to the marketplace and the house that had just vanished. "Wait a minute," he then said. "Impure water is a conductor, which would disrupt the portal's electron flow, and that would force the portal to appear somewhere else." He then slapped his visor with one of his upper appendages. "Of course! How the hell did I forget that?" He then noticed that the ponies surrounding Lime were all staring at him, some of them wearing quite angry expression. "Yeah, I'm sorry!" the Red exclaimed. "So, so sorry! I did not mean for this to happen. Totally my bad!"

"I don't think these creatures like us so much anymore," said the Green with the really long metal instrument on his back. He was gazing around at the many ponies staring back at Lime. "We should probably get out of here, like, right now."

"Yes, I agree!" shouted Twilight as she trotted up to Lime. "I don't care if that was accident, you people have done enough and you need to leave. Follow me, and I'll lead you to the portal. Please do not deviate from the path I take you on in any way."

Lime Squadron all turned to stare at the purple unicorn with a baby dragon standing next to it. "Oh look," said Patton with a tone that oozed condensation. "The pony wants to order us around."

"Actually, I think we should do what it says," said the really stern voiced female Yellow. "It wants to lead us out of this universe, we want to leave this universe, and basically every creature in this town probably hates us at this point, so I see no reason not to follow it. If the act of escorting us makes it and its people feel safe, then why not, as long as it coincides with our objective?"

"That's a good point, sis," said the only Yellow who hadn't spoken yet. This Yellow was also female, and was the exact same height as the Yellow she had called "sis". In fact, this Yellow's body stature was almost exactly the same, even when the added height from her colored carapace was concerned. She spoke with a very confident voice that hinted at a deeper layer of competitiveness, causing her sentence to suggest that she didn't agree with very many people very often. "We have given these creatures plenty of reason to hate us, after all," she continued. "The sooner we leave them be, the better, I think."

That was when Pinkie Pie chose to pop up in the middle of Lime Squadron, to give all of them her surprise-hello greeting. "No no, we don't hate you!" she shouted. "Not at all! My name's Pinkie Pie, and I want to welcome you to Ponyville—"

Pinkie Pie had so many metal instruments pointed at her all of a sudden that nearly all of the view of her (as seen from Twilight's perspective) was obscured by steel.

"How did you get here?" Patton demanded. "We are not your friends! Get back! Now!"

The Pinkie Pie's eyes were now so large that they covered nearly her entire face. "I-I'm sorry. Didn't mean to intrude or anything…" She hastily backed away from Lime and rejoined the ring of ponies surrounding them.

"We need to leave now," said the stern voiced female Yellow. "The natives are starting to get close."

"Follow me," said Twilight.

With that, the group began to move out. The ring of ponies made an opening so that Lime could leave through the marketplace entrance. After that, it was only a few blocks to the place where the portal was. Twilight rarely took her eyes off of Lime Squadron. After what had happened to Bon Bon's house, she couldn't afford to allow Lime even moment away from her supervision, for as long as they remained in this world. All the ponies of the marketplace followed Lime as a group as they progressed. Even those ponies who weren't at the marketplace eyed Lime as they passed by. Twilight spotted another of the friends, Fluttershy, watching the group with a cautious curiosity as they moved along.

Much to Twilight's surprise, one of the Greens moved a little closer to her. It was the alien with the machinery on her head. "We don't hate you either," she said softly. "Don't mind Patton. He hates everything."

Twilight looked the Green straight in the visor.

The Green held out one of her upper appendages, then remembered that Twilight didn't have fingers, and retracted it. "My name's Jess."

"I'm Twilight," said Twilight.

"And I'm Spike," said Spike, who was walking alongside Twilight.

"Let me introduce you to some other people in the squad," said Jess. She motioned over to the Green with the really long metal instrument on his back. "This is Christopher Skope." Christopher Skope allowed Twilight a glance from his visor before gazing at Jess, then turning away and shaking his head. Jess then motioned over to the Green holding the flamethrower. "And this is—"

"Jess, _really?_" the other Green interrupted.

Jess shrugged. "What?"

The conversation between Jess and Twilight had to stop, because Lime had finally reached the site of the portal. Now it was the Red's turn to speak. He took a place to stand that was in front of the group, but Patton for some reason insisted on standing close to him with his metal instrument drawn. "Okay, people," said the Red. "This is it. The next universe we teleport to will be the construction facility for the Hand."

"Yes!" exclaimed Skope while pumping a fist in the air. "I'm glad for that. The last few days have been stranger than the Myst series. I just want it to be over."

"Wait just a minute!" Twilight exclaimed. "How are we supposed to deal with the portal after you leave?"

"It will disappear as soon as the last of us is through," said the Red. "I think. Um, yup."

He didn't sound very sure. "This town needs it gone," Twilight persisted.

"It will be!" the Red insisted.

"Fuck it," said Patton. "We're leaving." He grabbed the Red in a choke hold and dragged him into the white light. The rest of the group followed immediately after them. Jess waived Twilight goodbye as she, the last person, stepped into the portal. And then, just as the Red had promised, the portal shrank and disappeared, leaving nothing but a dome shaped crater where Bon Bon's house had been.

With that, ponydom's first encounter with an alien species had concluded.

No sooner had the last visages of light from the portal vanished when a Pegasus named Rainbow Dash zoomed down from the sky. "Morning, Twilight!" he greeted. "Man, I really slept in. My alarm clock is broken. And from the ponies I've talked to on the way here, so is the rest of the clockwork in this entire town! It's Weird!" Rainbow Dash hovered above Twilight, wondering why she didn't seem interested in what she was saying. Then she realized that Twilight was looking at something, and bothered to look directly below where she was fluttering, finally noticing the crater. "Whoa, what happened here? Where's Bon Bon's house? Did I miss something?"


	27. The Quantum Manipulator

27 – THE QUANTUM MANIPULATOR

Travis Chamaelon was no more social than he had been an hour ago. Looking over into his cell, Kevin Guinness could see that Travis was now sitting slouched at the back of the cell. He was clearly very depressed about something, but Kevin didn't really have any way of knowing what. Travis had been escorted into his cell by guards from his same Army. That did say something: Travis' standing with the Purple Army was clearly not all that it had been. This would certainly explain why Travis was feeling so down. Perhaps the real question, then, was what had led to Travis' lessened relations with the Purple leadership. The conflict was something to do with Lime Squadron, of that Kevin had little doubt.

That line of thinking caused Kevin to wonder exactly how his newfound friends were faring without him. It hadn't really been that long since he had been taken from them, maybe eight hours or so at the most. But Kevin knew that a hell of a lot could happen in just eight hours. There was also the fact that not very many people on Lime Squadron recognized Kevin. That wasn't to say that he had no relations with anyone on Lime. Quite the opposite, in fact. By the point he had been captured, he had known every other member, and they at least recognized his visor. This was more than could be said for the squad he had previously belonged to, two Blue spies in Green armor who had masqueraded under the false identities Ferrero Rocher and Frisbee Rezah. Those two had barely even remembered that he existed, frequently forgetting that he was in their squad, or that they had even met him. Lime Squadron had been quite a step up from the farce of leadership that Rocher and Rezah had been.

Of all the people he had met since coming to the canyon, Mr. Boom was probably the individual who knew Kevin best. This was most likely because he was the member of Lime who Kevin had met first (or would-be member, since they had first met before Lime Squadron had been conceived). The two of them had always seemed to get pared together, and though he was mute, Mr. Boom seemed to have this understanding of Kevin that no other member of Lime Squadron shared, as he had always taken the job of covering Kevin and providing him ammo during the many firefights Lime had been through on their journey through the alternate universe.

BANG! BANG!

Kevin was violently wrenched out of his thoughts. At the same time, Travis jolted up from the floor in surprise. The sounds had come from the door to the cell block. Kevin got himself off the floor and walked curiously over to the door to his cell, which faced the direction of the cell block entrance. Meanwhile, Travis was backed to the end of his cell, clearly much more suspicious of the sound than Kevin was.

BANG! BANG!

Both Kevin and Travis jumped a second time. That was when the door to the cell block suddenly flew off of its hinges and raced through the air, coming to bounce off of the shield wall to Kevin's cell. The flying door was followed by a horizontal pillar of flame which soon dispersed throughout the room. Once the flame and smoke cleared, Kevin could see far behind the doorway three Yellow soldiers, plus a huge metal foot, the leg of which was taller than Kevin's view through the opening.

"Nice shot, Inez," exclaimed the Yellow on the right. The trio of Yellows walked through the cell block door and came to stop in front of Kevin's cell.

"This guy seems to be where the signal is coming from," said the other Yellow. "Hey, I recognize this guy. Kevin, right?"

Kevin nodded. It was nice to have someone recognize him by his visor and get his name right. I didn't happen nearly often enough. He also remembered who these Yellows were. "Lemon Squadron!" he greeted. Then he pointed his gauntlet at the first Yellow. "Hearts, isn't it?" Hearts nodded. Kevin also recognized Deryn and Tom. "Where's Inez?" Kevin asked.

Tom pointed out the door. "In our vehicle."

Hearts said to Kevin: "By the way, it's a good thing your armor always emits an ID signal. That's how we were able to get on board this ship. Once here, we just followed it to find you." Hearts deactivated the shield wall to Kevin's cell, and the Green stepped out.

"You came to rescue me!" said Kevin.

Tom shook his head. "Not really. We actually came to assassinate Hathrow Vorennius. But this cell block happened to be along that way, so we thought we'd stop by."

Deryn was looking at Travis' cell. "Hey, I remember you too!"

"Why must my luck always be like this?" Travis moaned.

"Well lookie what we have here," said Hearts. "It's our little Purple spy. How've you been?"

"What's he doing in this cell?" Deryn asked. "It looks like he's being treated about the same as Kevin was."

"It's complicated," was all Travis answered.

"Yeah, I thought that's what you'd say," said Deryn. "Guys, let's just leave him here." Kevin and Lemon turned around to leave, when suddenly Travis shouted: "Wait, I want to join you!"

Lemon turned around slowly. "You're awfully desperate, aren't you?" Hearts asked the Purple rhetorically.

"Well, yes," said Travis. "But that's not the point. The point is, I don't think my Army really likes me all that much at this point, and since you guys already know me, I'm wondering if you will let me join your mission. And your Army, for real this time, no spying for other people. I just don't want to be on the Purple Army anymore, not after knowing how insignificant I am to its cause. Please let me join you."

"No," said Deryn quickly and sternly. Lemon turned to leave again.

"I can help you get to Vorennius," said Travis. Again, Lemon stopped and turned. "I know the way to Vorennius' command room," Travis continued. "I can lead you straight there. And since I was put in this cell for gross incompetence, not treason, I think my identification should still work in the doors. I can make your mission enormously easier for you. As long as you let me join your Army after we're through with this mission."

Lemon looked at each other. Some nods passed back and forth between the three of them. Then Tom strode over to Travis' cell and hit the deactivation switch, turning off the shield wall. Travis walked out proudly. "Does this mean you've chosen to let me join your Army?"

"We haven't decided on that part yet," said Deryn. "But we sure as hell are taking you with us."

Hearts deactivated the shield wall to Travis' cell and dragged him out with his own two arms. "C'mon, spy. We're going on a little tour of the ship, which you are going to lead us on."

The group walked outside the cell block. Filing through the door, Kevin emerged behind Deryn and realized exactly what it had been that had blown in the door. A giant mech stood in the transfer hallway, its stubbed metal nose staring down at him from above a missile launcher and a Gatling gun on either arm.

"Inez, where's Brian?" Deryn asked.

The mech made a large clanking sound as it turned its view back and forth between ends of the hallway. That was when Kevin noticed something clinging onto the top of the mech. Hearts noticed it at the same time. "Brian, get down from there!" he shouted at the mech's head. It wasn't the mech she was shouting at; it was the person on top of it.

"I like the view up here!" Brian shouted back down at Lemon. "Let's go, Inez. C'mon! I wanna go through the ship while looking down at everything from up here!"

"How did he get up there?" Tom asked no one in particular.

The mech reached up with its Gatling gun arm and shoved Brian off of its head. The former Blue tumbled off backwards and landed on him bum on the grated floor. He dusted himself off and stood up. "I was having fun up there!" he protested.

"We need to get moving," stated Deryn, giving not attention to Brian than she already had. She turned to Travis. "Purple, which way do we go from here?"

Travis pointed to one end of the hallway. "This way. Follow me."

* * *

The group proceeded through the ship, cautiously but surely. Travis and the mech took up the front while everyone else clustered into a group behind. The group encountered many a Purple soldier along the way. Since they had managed to leave the hanger, they were now clearly not where they were supposed to be, according to Vorennius' plans. The mech did most of the fighting, which was easy since basically all the Purples they came across were infantry. They had to avoid using the lifts because Vorennius had complete control over them. Though their opposition may not have been staunch, it still was not quite as powerful in magnitude as something they might expect to encounter on an enemy capital ship. This was cause for concern; for they knew that that Admiral was watching their every move, and this made the lack resistance they faced all the more fearsome, since they had no idea what the Admiral was planning.

The group was saved by the existence of stairs, which allowed them to move between levels without falling into the trap of the lifts. Travis led the group up several levels, alternating between a couple different shafts of stairways since the doors in each one would seal themselves after the group had been in it for a few minutes or so. They progressed through the ship in this manner before they finally reached a particularly long hallway, at which point Travis stated: "Okay guys, we're almost there."

That was the moment when all the airlock doors in front of them slid shut, one after another. The plating of the doors was the same as the doors Lemon had first encountered on the ship: so thick that it was basically impenetrable. At the same time, the doors behind the group followed suit, effectively trapping the group in that section of hallway.

"Well, shit," said Kevin. "Now what?"

"We need to find a way out of here ASAP is what," said Deryn. "The Admiral has trapped us here, which undoubtedly means he's sending troops to corner us as we speak."

Tom walked over to one of the smaller doors on the side of the hallway and started examining a panel next to it. "It's kind of a long shot," he said, "But I might be able to hack this."

"No need," said Travis as he stepped up behind Tom. "I should have clearance." He waived his gauntlet over the panel, and sure enough, the door light switched from red to green color.

"Maybe it _was_ a good thing to bring you along," said Deryn to Travis as the group filed through the door. Inez's mech was the only exception. Instead of simply filing in along with everyone else (the mech being almost seven meters tall) she had to blast sections of the wall around the door to make enough room for her entry. She wouldn't normally have been able to do this, but since the door had been unlocked, that meant the titanium reinforcement layer of the wall had retracted. Once enough of the wall had been removed, Inez was able to simply step on into the room.

The hall ahead of the group was quite a bit different than the brilliantly illuminated main hallways of the _Avant Garde_. The space they were in now was much darker, and the small amount of light coming from the overheads was so starkly blue tinted that the room seemed almost cast in shadow. Around the circumference of the room were see-through cylindrical cases containing strange objects. The objects were odd in shape and their aesthetic look was reminiscent of the layout of the Purple base that Lemon had destroyed a few days ago in the Halothrii Wilderness.

"Where are we?" Brian asked, voicing the rest of the group's thoughts.

"I'm not exactly sure," said Travis. "Definitely close to the command deck, which would explain why the Admiral closed off that hallway we were in. I think the cargo sections are a few decks below that, which this room ought to be part of. This is where the Admiral keeps extremely valuable possessions."

"Valuable possessions, I like that," stated Hearts. "In that case, it might be time for us to do some shopping, see what we can swipe. Anything the Purple Army will be at a disadvantage for not having, is something worth taking."

"We don't exactly have a lot of time," said Deryn. "The soldiers Vorennius is sending to his trap in the hallway will follow us here."

Hearts had walked up to the door leading to the next section of storage bay. "My thoughts exactly," he mentioned. "I think we should press on through here and see if we can get to the _really_ valuable stuff."

This door, fortunately for Inez, was a true cargo bay door, and large enough that Inez's mech would be able to fit through without blowing up anything. Unfortunately for the entire group, however, Travis said: "That door leads to classified territory. I don't have clearance."

Undeterred, Hearts pulled out from his tool belt a small cylindrical canister. He flipped the lid off, and a thick white mist poured out of the opening.

"Is that liquid nitrogen?" Tom asked.

"Yup," said Hearts. "This stuff always seems to come in handy." He stuck a vacuum tube into the nitrogen container, inserted the other end inside of the control panel, and hit a button on the container. Nitrogen squirted from the container, up the tube, and into the locking mechanism for the door. The red light above the door blinked and shut off after a few seconds. With that done, Hearts put away the nitrogen container and applied his gauntlets to the door. After a few heaves, it slid reluctantly open. "Now then," Hearts said as he led the group through the door, "Let's see just what the Admiral doesn't want us to get our hands on."

The other side of the doorway contained a long hallway with rows upon rows of containers with artifacts in them. The room was immense; cavernous, almost. It dwarfed the size of a hanger bay, and for a cargo bay, that implied that it contained some pretty valuable stuff. At the opposite end of the room was a pedestal with a purplish light illuminating it from above. Lemon decided to make it a priority to get over to the pedestal and see what it held, since it was undoubtedly the most prominent, and therefore important, location in the bay.

Lemon had barely begun looking around the massive chamber when they heard sounds coming from the hallway outside the cargo bay sector. It seemed that the enemy troops Deryn had predicted had finally arrived: a small army of Purple infantry rushing to meet them. Perhaps three dozen soldiers were jogging towards Lemon in ordered lines, pelting diligently through the first artifact room. "Stop right there!" shouted the Purple at the head of the platoon, who was apparently their commanding officer. "You will go no further!" This officer had clearly just been woken up from his off-duty period, because on his feet, in place of boots, were a pair of pink bunny slippers which poked out from underneath the leg sections of his armor. "You will stop immediately!" the officer continued. "We have you outgunned."

Inez turned her mech to face the officer and walked straight up to him. "Bitch please," said Inez plainly through the speaker system of the mech.

The platoon of Purples stopped dead in front of the mech. "Do you intend to open fire?" Bunny Slippers demanded.

"Oh, don't worry about that," said Tom, standing off to the mech's side. "We don't need to open fire to deal with all of you."

"But we will," Deryn added.

Inez opened fire with her mech. At the same time, Deryn pulled out her battle rifle and Tom holstered over his shoulder the spare chaingun turret that he had taken from the mech. As a hail of missiles rained down on the Purple troops, Deryn fired a burst of three bullets into the enemy crowd, and getting a headshot for each of the three bullets that the burst fired.

Meanwhile, Hearts watched the firestorm erupt before him. He was a sniper, and preferred to use his rifle only for enemies a moderate to far distance away. But he did have another fighting style for close combat. He pulled out his combat knives, one in each hand, and walked up to a Purple soldier who was focused on the mech. "Hi," said Hearts. The soldier turned. The next heartbeat seemed to go almost in slow motion. The soldier moved his arms to aim his weapon, but by that point Heart's right foot had begun a roundhouse kick. The soldier was swept off of his feet, his shot going wide as he lost his balance. Hearts lashed out with his left knife and pieced the soldier's jugular through the gap between his chest plate and helmet, while the soldier was still in midair. He hit the ground already stone dead. By now, some of the soldiers nearest him had noticed Hearts. With no time to waste, Hearts went to town.

From Tom's perspective, everything was now chaos. Missiles, precision rounds, automatic fire, and an unleashed knifemaster had all meshed together to create one hell of a fight. But Tom was totally okay with it; perfectly cool. He took some deep breaths, in and out, in and out. Then he aimed his chaingun turret at a group of Purples far enough away from the rest of Lemon that there would be no risk of friendly fire. And finally, he let loose. The chaos escalated.

"Get them!" Bunny Slippers shouted at his men amidst the battle. But his men were all either dead or on the process of falling back. It was only a few more seconds before he was the last to remain. The instant he realized this, he shouted at Lemon: "This is not over!" Then he ran, his slippers making squeaking sounds on the floor as he jogged back towards the main hallway after the remnants of his platoon.

Travis and Kevin just stared at the mess of bodies that were now strewn across the room, mixed in with the ruins of artifact cases. "This really just happened," said Travis slowly to no one in particular. "And I'm an accomplice…oh…_fuck_. If the Admiral hated me before…"

"You'll get over it," said Hearts as he strolled over to the distressed Purple. "I guess this means you really can be trusted. Because the Army you used to belong to, I doubt that they will ever trust you again."

Travis, focusing on his own thoughts as much as he was on the present, could only nod slowly. "Yeah."

"Where's Brian?" Deryn asked.

"Ah, not this again!" Hearts groaned.

Everyone searched around the room. Eventually, Lemon discovered him standing in front of the glowing pedestal at the far end of the room. As this was the place the group had planned to explore next, Brain was actually standing where he was supposed to be, which was noteworthy because it had taken an epic battle sequence to get him to follow directions, when in moments of peace he had chosen to do everything else except what he was told. The group gathered around the pedestal.

"What do you suppose is in there?" Kevin asked.

Atop the pedestal stood a long, green-glowing device. The bottom section of it was slightly wider than the top, though the whole device looked kind of like a thick luminescent pillar. The top of the device bore a symbol: a diamond with its bottom sides longer than its top sides, and curved. Surrounding the diamond was an outline of the same shape and color. Next to the diamond was a circle containing a small arrow pointing up.

"Holy shit guys," said Hearts. "Am I seeing what I think I am?"

"It's a quantum manipulator," Tom finished for him.

Deryn reached out to grab it, but her gauntlet went straight through the manipulator as though there was nothing in its place but air. Deryn jumped back in surprise. "What the hell?"

"It's vibrating at a different quantum phase than our universe is," Travis observed objectively. "So none of us can touch it. Vorennius probably got it onto this ship using more of his artifacts from other dimensions. But we don't have access to those same technologies; they could be anywhere in this room, and we don't have anywhere near enough time to experiment and figure out which ones."

"We have to get it!" Hearts exclaimed. "It's too valuable to just leave here." He reached out with his own gauntlet, but just as Deryn's had, his slipped through the manipulator.

"Yeah, well, looks like we have to leave it," said Deryn sadly. "We just don't have the means to take it with us." Hearts cursed under his breath.

"Let me try!" Brain shouted confidently.

"Brian, don't waste your time," Hearts started.

Brian walked up to the manipulator before anyone could stop him, and reached out with his gauntlet. As he touched it, the manipulator suddenly glowed a bright green and dissolved into light, which swirled around Brian. "Whoa," the Blue exclaimed. "My shields are recharging beyond their capacity! Hey guys, I think I picked up the manipulator."

Lemon Squadron was staring at Brian, more confused than they had been about anything in quite a long while. "Brian," said Hearts slowly. "Please tell me exactly how you did that."

"Weeeeeeell," said Brian. "I kind of…reached out…and picked it up. Um, yeah."

The former Blue had survived a missile assault from a dozen mechs, and then been able to pick up the quantum manipulator when no one else could. "We really need to talk sometime, Brian," said Hearts. "But not right now."

"_I must admit, I have underestimated all of you,_" said an ominous voice through the speakers at the corners of the room's ceiling. Lemon whirled around in surprise. The voice was slow and deliberate, for which Lemon recognized it almost instantly.

"Admiral," said Hearts. "Finally, we speak together. I don't believe I've had the pleasure of making you acquaintance. My squadron and I, we just thought we'd drop in for a bit of a visit. I hope we haven't come uninvited. See, it's a bit difficult to judge reactions when the host has been deemed dead for three years."

"_Indeed the reports of my death were not sincere,_" the voice continued. "_But the reports of yours certainly will be. I commend you for making it as far as you have. But finally the checkmate has come, for you have all made your final mistake by taking the quantum manipulator. You really should learn to keep your hands off of things that are not yours._"

"If you want it back, come and take it from us!" Deryn shouted.

"_Your final opportunity to return it has expired_," said the voice.

Suddenly, Brian started shaking. "Um, g-guys," he stammered. "I think something's wrong. My shields, they're receding. And my armor is getting hard to move in."

Hearts was beginning to notice the same thing with his own armor. His shield strength was now down to half of its capacity, and his joints felt heavy. _A power drain,_ he realized. _But how—the quantum manipulator!_ "He's using the manipulator to drain our armor suit's power supplies!" he shouted at everyone else.

As soon as he finished talking, platforms began to rise up from the floor of the room. Within the next few seconds, Lemon was surrounded my dozens of mechs and Scorpion Tanks. But this time, they had no shields. And there was also the fact that their movements were being dampened. Hearts felt as though his armor was increasing its weight with each passing second. It took longer for him to make simple movements, such as even the act of walking. It was also affecting the mech with Inez inside: the lights of the mech's energy shield emitters had noticeably dimmed in the last moment. The Admiral was using the quantum manipulator to specifically target Lemon, Kevin, Travis, Brain, and the mech. Things were not boding well.

"_No one steals from me,"_ Vorennius continued through the loudspeaker.

"What do we do?" said Deryn, the panic beginning to show in her tone.

"Vorennius played us again," said Hearts slowly. "We were all fools to think that we would be able to kill him on his own territory. The reason why we were able to get into this room so easily is because Vorennius wanted us here, so that we would find the quantum manipulator and he could use it to put us in this situation."

"You're not thinking of abandoning the mission, are you?" Deryn countered.

Tom was leaning against one of the artifact containers, apparently having trouble even standing up straight. "I hate to admit it people, but we can't fight like this."

"Tom is right," Hearts stated. "With no shields and dampened movements, we don't stand a chance. But we do have the quantum manipulator with us. If we can get it back to the Green-Yellow Alliance, they could gain a huge advantage in the war. You have no idea what this thing can do."

"So basically, we run like hell," said Tom. "A sound plan, given the situation, I think."

"Yeah, I like that plan!" Kevin exclaimed. "I just want to get off this ship. The Admiral can wait."

"Are you sure about this, Hearts?" Deryn asked.

The enemy vehicles around the group were just sitting there, waiting for Lemon to make a move. The silence was deafening. Hearts struggled to think under the pressure. If Lemon left the ship now, and Vorennius was allowed to live and further his own plans, then down the road it could turn out to be disastrous for the Yellow-Green Alliance. But Tom had also presented another good point: in their current state, Lemon would effectively be committing suicide if they attempted to continue this mission. His mind made up, he nodded at Deryn.

Deryn got the nod, then aimed and shot the power core of the pedestal that the quantum manipulator had been sitting on, which gave a brilliant explosion that obscured the enemy's view of Lemon for just a brief instant.

And then they ran.


	28. A Capture and an Escape

28 – A CAPTURE AND AN ESCAPE

The instant that Lime Squadron emerged from the portal, blood red sunlight bathed their armor, making their primary colors glow in an ominous way. From the beach where they stood, a huge mountain rose up before them, with metal walkways and machinery poking out of it in places that it made the monolith look both natural and mechanistic. And atop the mountain, floating above its sharp peak, was a giant metal hand, dwarfing even the mountain with its terrifying size, its index finger pointing threateningly and dangerously at nothing in particular.

"Well, looks like we made it," Guy Dudeperson observed audibly.

As he spoke, the portal behind Lime shrank into nothingness, and pieces of a colorful house, which had been swept up by the portal in the world its other end connected to, fell to the ground with _bangs_, _thunks_, and various shattering sounds all around the group.

The members of Lime Squadron readied their weapons as they stared at the all too familiar spectacle before them. "Vincent," Skope stated, his point not being lost on anyone else in the group.

"I don't see anyone rushing towards us," said Hester.

"Nor am I spotting any snipers either," informed Amber.

"Yup, it seems pretty clear," said Clair.

Wren swiveled her helmet as she gazed around. "This place is weird as shit."

"And not looking too different since the last time we were here," Hester informed her sister, as Wren hadn't been with the others the first time they had come here. "The mountain in the center of the island appears to have had more manmade fortress built into it. But I'm not picking up any personnel. It looks clear."

The group cautiously pressed forward. The mountain loomed over them ever more threateningly as they neared it. They journeyed into a wide trail that seemed to go alongside the mountain's edge, with sharp jagged rocks forming a wall on its other side. The trail curved, still keeping with the perimeter of the mountain, before Lime came to a bridge. Extending over a long gap of water, the bridge had a covering along its center section. On the left side of the bridge was a short, cylindrical object which was sticking out of the side of the gap and was emitting a stream of azure blue. Lime recognized these as Man Cannons, devices which could propel objects, including people, across vast distances. The Blue Army was known to use Man Cannons in their base designs, to hilarious effect. It was odd to find one here, in the very depths of Red territory.

"Everyone must stay on the bridge," stated Nome. "It is best to ignore the Man Cannons, they do not serve our purposes."

"Aw, but I've always wanted to step into one of these!" exclaimed Kenny.

Nome looked as though he was almost about to cover his visor with his palm, but then got hold of his annoyance and decided not to. "Ynnek, I advise against it. The cannons propel objects at very high speeds—"

"It's perfectly safe," said Guy. "Don't listen to Nome. These cannons aren't like the ones the Blues use. They have safety features built into them."

"Such as what, specifically?" Nome asked.

"Safety stuff," was all Guy answered.

"That is not a sufficient answer," Nome protested.

But it was too late. Kenny was already at the Man Cannon, and before anyone could stop him, he was flying across the gap on a course parallel with the bridge. "Waaaaaaaaaa—ooff!" he shouted as he sailed through the air and came to land on the other side, sprawling and rolling upon contact with the ground.

"Are you okay?" Jess shouted over.

"I'm fine!" Kenny shouted back as he got up and dusted himself off.

The rest of Lime walked over to where Kenny was standing, but this time using the bridge itself. Kenny strode over to Guy as soon as the group neared him. "There were no safety features in that!" he protested at the Red.

"I know," Guy said smugly. "I just wanted to see if you would actually use the Man Cannon. And you did!" He seemed not the least bit concerned that Kenny could have been hurt, and actually appeared to have become much more confident than he had been before coming to this dimension. He strode with exuberance and spoke with witty sarcasm.

"You just can't tread too fine a line with us, can you, Red?" Hester asked Guy as she stepped in front of him.

"Shall we continue, or just stand here and stare angrily at each other?" the Red shot back. "I do understand that you all have a very important mission to complete, or am I mistaken?"

Hester decided to discipline the Red later. "Which way is it, Red? And no more goading people into unnecessary safety hazards this time!"

Guy pointed off to the right, where Lime could see a brightly-lit durasteel tunnel leading into the mountain. "Main entrance to the fortress is right there."

"It looks unguarded," Amber observed. "In fact, I haven't seen a single Red yet on this entire island." She turned to Patton. "Boss, I don't like this."

"Aw, c'mon!" Guy exclaimed while motioning to the fortress entrance. "It's not a Man Cannon. No one's going to be flying off to their doom or anything. Look guys, I really didn't mean to put anyone off with what I pulled at the bridge."

Hester looked at the fortress entrance for a moment, judging the dangers of entering the passage. She eventually decided that this was probably the best way they were going to get into the fortress, having not seen any more subtle ways that the group could infiltrate the interior of the mountain. She then walked behind Guy and planted the barrel of her magnum underneath his heart. "Lead the way, Red."

The group slowly walked into the passageway. Only about ten meters in, the tunnel began to slope downwards. Another twenty meters or so was the first pillar of the tunnel. Suddenly, that pillar began to glow with a blue fury. Clair, at the front of the group, didn't have time to shout a warning before the electromagnetic pulse discharged. Everyone's HUDs flickered with static as their energy shields were stripped completely. At the same instant, their weapons fizzled, the electronics within them becoming fried as the pulse skyrocketed their circuit's voltages beyond overload capacity.

Shaking her head from the unexpected shock of the static, Hester centered her vision back on Guy just in time to see a red colored fist land straight into her visor. She stumbled back as Patton lunged for the Red. He aimed Lucy at him, the shotgun still operable because it was an "oldschool" shotgun that did not have any electronics in its mechanisms. He managed to fire off one shot at the Red, but Guy danced out of the way with a grace that he had not revealed to Lime at any point before.

"Red!" Patton yelled at Guy. "What did you lead us into?"

Guy Dudeperson laughed with a chilling amusement. "Only your last mistake. I _was_ telling the truth about this entrance not being a Man Cannon. But a safety hazard? I think Vincent will decide that."

Patton fired another shot, but Guy instinctively waltzed out of the way before the shell left the barrel. "Vincent will see us only right before we explode him like the barrel of neurotic fire that he really is!" Patton exclaimed.

Guy laughed. "Everyone, I think you can reveal yourselves now."

All around Lime, the air shimmered, and Red soldiers were revealed. At least two dozen strong, the Reds were surrounding Lime. They had their assault rifles trained on the squadron, which were coated in some kind of reflective film, which must have somehow protected them from the EMP. The group was surrounded by enemy weapons, and with only a shotgun as a working weapon, Lime was now practically defenseless.

"My friends!" Guy greeted the other Reds. "It has been too long." Then he turned back to Lime. "All I needed was just to get you to the electromagnetic pulse emitter." He pointed to the pillar in the center of the corridor. "To get you all defenseless. I wanted to try to escape when we came to that Red encampment in the forest of the Abyss of Absentmindedness, but someone had a shotgun to my back at the time, so I had to play along as though I actually wanted to help you."

"I was never really convinced," Patton growled.

Guy laughed. "Of course you say that now!" The other Reds surrounding Lime began to laugh as well. "The security system of this fortress is common knowledge to all Red soldiers," Guy continued. "Cloaked guards make up an army on this island. They wait until the enemy has entered this passage, then detonate the EMP emitter, and WHAM! You're defenseless and captured. You know, I was actually quite happy when you mentioned that this place was your intended destination. That made my job quite a bit easier."

"Um, Dudeperson, you do know that we have to take you in too, right?" said one of the Red soldiers.

"What?" Dudeperson asked.

"Yup," the other soldier replied. "See, in leading Lime Squadron here, you were technically aiding the enemy, according to Red Army Regulation Statute 16807. Which just happens to be classified as an act of treason. So we have to take you in."

"You're shitting me!" Guy exclaimed.

The other Red shook his head.

"But I brought you Lime Squadron!" Guy protested.

"Regulations man," said the other Red soldier. "Fucking regulations."

At the same time, a Red standing right behind Guy _thunked_ him over the helmet with his assault rifle, and Guy fell to the ground unconscious. "Good God, I thought he'd never stop talking!" exclaimed the second Red. "What should we do with him?"

"Put Dudeperson in the same cell as Lime," ordered the first Red, who apparently was the commanding officer of the group. "That should make for a rather interesting conversation when he wakes up." He laughed.

_Yes it will be_, thought Hester as she watched Lime begin to hand over their weapons to the Reds. _You will be sorrier about this then you have been about anything in a very long time, Guy Dudeperson._

* * *

Hathrow Vorennius studied the display of the ship determinedly. Lemon Squadron had managed to escape the Artifact Containment Sector, even despite their weakened state, which was caused by the activated Quantum Manipulator which they were foolishly taking with them. They would not get far. And yet, Vorennius was having a more difficult than expected time of finding them. Running his fingers across the holographic screens emitted by the central console, he searched all the surrounding decks for the elusive team. Eventually deciding it was futile, the Admiral then ordered the computer: "Display their known escape path."

The computer made an outline of Lemon's path, up to the point where it had failed to track them any further. "Display projected route," said the Admiral. The computer outlined a path, continuing the previous one, which indicated a destination somewhere in the shuttle bay hangers. Vorennius froze, suddenly realizing what Lemon was trying to do.

"Shut down all computer systems on the ship and reboot!"

The computer ran through its algorithms for a moment. "Admiral, that course of action does not seem wise. Many important operations on the ship will be interrupted—"

"I ordered you to do it!" Vorennius snapped. He could not allow for questioning, not when every instant mattered.

However, the computer was not the only entity wondering what he was doing. "Admiral," enquired a smooth watery voice from the shadows behind him. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Lemon Squadron has somehow managed to escape my forces with the Quantum Manipulator," Vorennius explained tersely. "They cannot be allowed to leave this ship, at any cost." As he spoke, the holographic console went dark, its windows disappearing from existence. In the distance and through the walls, Vorennius could hear the sounds of doors slamming shut, the entire ship entering automatic lockdown.

* * *

Lemon Squadron, plus Brian, Kevin, and Travis, sprinted into the hanger, all of them panting heavily with the exertion of moving in their low-powered armor. Tom pointed at the nearest fighter, and the group altered their course to get to it. Two repairmen looked up in surprise as they approached, but Deryn popped both of their heads with her designated marksman rifle before they could do anything else to react. With that, they filed their way into the fighter.

After the battle in the hanger, Lemon had immediately raced to the nearest stairway and slowly made their descent until they reached the decks containing the shuttle bays. Inez had had to abandon the mech in favor of the ability to walk down stairs in any practical manner, so that firepower was no longer in Lemon's possession. And with Lemon's armor being in the state it was, the journey had taken a particular tool: The trek down to the lower decks had been a long one that had exhausted all but Inez, who was already known for being indefatigable. Though the _Avant Garde_ was small for a capitol ship, it was still a massive place to walk through, and this experience had given Lemon newfound appreciation for the invention of lifts.

Tom had been severely affected by the power drain of the Quantum Manipulator, having been standing closer to it than the others (except Brian) and Inez was having to carry him because he could barely stand. Inez plopped Tom down in one of the passenger seats as the group came aboard the shuttle. Coming to sit on either side of him were Travis and Brian, with Travis looking equally as exhausted as he was.

Though Brian had been the one holding the Quantum Manipulator when it had started the power drain, and was still holding it even now, he was miraculously unaffected by it, having experienced only the loss of his energy shields, instead of the decreased motor function that everyone else was facing. This compounded his already unusual qualities, both in ability and personality, of which Lemon had taken particular note.

Deryn took the pilot's seat, with Kevin managing to find a seat beside her. Deryn flipped several switches, prepping the shuttle for launch. The thrusters activated, and the craft rose from the deck floor. But at the same moment, the doors leading out to space suddenly began to close, huge titanium panels sliding out to cover the gaping windows. "The ship is going into automated lockdown!" Deryn shouted into the passenger's compartment. "This situation just got a lot more complicated!"

Hearts stumbled into the cockpit to see what Deryn was talking about. The last of the doors finished closing just as he looked through the forward window. "Complicated but not impossible," he thought to himself aloud. "Let's see, the outer hull barriers probably haven't locked into place yet. If you divert all power for the energy shields to the nose of this ship, and then ram the door at full speed, we should be able to punch through."

There were a couple of blatantly glaring things in that last sentence that Kevin really didn't like. "Um, excuse me," he said as politely as possible to Hearts. "But are you _totally fucking insane?_"

"What's your problem?" Hearts shot back.

"What's my problem?" Kevin asked. "My problem is that is that you're planning _to ram us into a titanium wall at full speed!_ That's my fucking problem!"

Suddenly, metallic pinging sounded from the back of the ship. "Tangos," Tom informed everyone from the passenger's compartment, while looking at the feed for the back facing camera of the ship. "Lots of them. They're all firing at us. I think we need to leave right about now."

Deryn turned to Kevin and gave him a glaring look with her visor. "Do you have a better idea, Green?"

Kevin quickly tried to search his muddled thoughts, but before he could say anything, Deryn shook her helmet at him and turned back to the control console. There was a subtle electric humming from outside as the shields redirected to the front. Then the shuttle began to accelerate, moving faster and faster towards the hanger door.

Kevin tensed as he watched. "Deryn _Deryn Deryn_ I really do not likethisplan—"

The shuttle impacted the door with a terrible crash that rattled everything as though it were a figurine inside a bottle rocket. Kevin was convinced that he was dead…until he opened his eyes, looked through his visor, and realized that he was still alive. He was still inside the shuttle, which still had everyone else in it as well, and best of all he could see stars through the cockpit window.

Hearts nudged Kevin as if he wasn't sure that the Green was awake. "Hey, it worked," he said softly.

"Yeah, I guess…" Kevin managed.

"Looks like you had a bit of a redoubt," said Deryn.

"I'm fine," Kevin half-lied. After just going through an experience like that, his mental state was not all that it had been, though he was very relieved that he wasn't a smear on the hanger door.

"Is everyone alright back there?" Hearts called into the passenger's compartment. A chorus of replies confirmed that everyone else was fine.

Deryn relaxed in her seat as the shuttle accelerated away from the _Avant Garde_. "And now, we head back to Yellow Command," she stated. "And show off our little prize to the Lord High Commander General."


	29. The Hand

29 – THE HAND

The shield wall loomed in front of Lime Squadron, glowing its subtle orange tint and painting the other walls of the cell in which they resided in a hue of the same color. The members of Lime were all slouched around the cell at various places in it, though everyone was rather close to everyone else because the cell was only ten by ten meters in dimensions, yet contained a total of thirteen people. However, one part of the cell was significantly emptier then the rest of the space. For sitting in one corner was Guy Dudeperson, whom had become quite a bit less well liked by Lime over recent developments.

At present, Guy was unconscious, having been sedated by a whack to his helmet when the security team had captured Lime. It had been almost six hours since Lime had been taken to this cell, during which at least one person appeared to be getting a nice rest. Patton had commented at several times during their imprisonment that he hoped Guy was getting a happy night's sleep, making the point that Guy's awakening would not be a very pleasant one, if he had anything to say or do about it (and since Lime was currently surrounding Guy, it was looking like Patton would).

Since going to sleep (voluntarily) was not something manageable to Lime after the journey everyone had been on, as well as the terribly uncomfortable conditions of the cell, the main thing that everyone had been doing was just sitting around and getting bored. Some people were managing this in different ways than others. Hester, Patton, and Ryan were solitarily thinking their own thoughts. Nome was using disinfectant wipes to clean his armor meticulously. But not everyone was devoid of energy; Jess was deep in a conversation with Clair about Lord of the Rings and any possible scenario that could relate its story to ponies. For a maddeningly long time now (no one had really bothered to keep track) the cell had been flooded with conversational noise. Jess seemed to have a gained a new interest in ponies ever since Lime had stumbled upon Equestria, during their journey to find this dimension. And while Clair was normally very solitary and introverted, she did have quite a developed social side, as was being demonstrated by her ability to maintain the conversations she had with Jess. She frequently supplemented the conversation with different viewpoints to what Jess brought in, such as how Middle Earth and Equestria might be linked by some dimensional rift, and what a great idea that would make for a fan fiction. Jess had undergone a surprising change over the recent past: before her iPod had run out of battery power, she had been quiet and absorbed, except for only the most demanding situations of Lime's quest. But now that she no longer had her iPod to absorb her time, her energetic and outgoing tendencies had exploded into the physical world, and where only a few days ago she had been quiet, now many within Lime were beginning to wonder if she would ever shut up.

It was difficult to hear the groan over Jess and Cliar's conversation. But then it repeated itself, louder the second time, and Lime collectively realized that Guy was coming to. The enthusiastic conversation between Green and Yellow abruptly halted as everyone turned to face the lone Red. Guy groggily shook his head and shifted himself into an upright sitting position.

"Good morning, Red," said Patton in a mocking tone. "Sleep well? Peace is such a valuable commodity these days…especially for someone in your situation!"

Guy looked around at everyone slowly as Patton talked. Eventually he squeaked: "Where am I…" Then he seemed to remember the last relations he had shared with Lime. "Oh fuck no, they put me in the same cell!"

"I guess your Army hates you about as much as we do," said Wren. "You just couldn't piss off enough people in one moment, could you, traitor?"

Guy growled: "Traitor? I was only ever your prisoner since the moment I encountered all of you. So how can you say I betrayed you? I was trying to free myself!"

"That guy who knocked you unconscious didn't seem to think so," said Ryan.

"I didn't know that helping you, even when captured, would still be considered an act of treason," Guy explained.

"Clearly," said Amber. "Dumbass."

"Well you were going to be captured anyways," said Guy. "Those cloaked soldiers you saw, they were following us around the whole time we were walking around on this island. You would all have been captured no matter what you had done, with or without my help."

"But you still betrayed us," said Patton as he massaged the phantom spot where his shotgun had used to be in his arms, before the Reds had confiscated it away.

"I think we should get his armor off first," said Kenny.

"You really don't need to do anything rash here," Guy pleaded. "I don't know what you guys are planning, but it's really not necessary."

"We've thrown around some ideas while you were out," said Skope. Indeed they had. Since it had been on basically everyone's minds, they had discussed the idea of what to do to Guy when he woke up, extensively. There were a limited number of things that they could do, given that they had no weapons. But they had eventually chosen one particular idea. He supposed that now was a good a time as any to reveal to the poor Red what they had decided. "We thought about a great many things," he stated. "We don't often get this well presented of an opportunity to do things to someone who's just screwed us over. We had elaborate ideas of brutal…stuff…that is dreadful enough to make even the strongest of ponies lose their innocence."

"Ponies?" Guy asked. "What are we talking about now?"

Nome cleared his throat. "What Skope means to state is that, what we have decided is terrible enough to traumatize even the most innocent of creatures…Red soldiers included, but ponies make a sufficient example. Just imagine the ponies that we encountered in that particular alternate universe along our journey. Imagine what their world may have been like, had Vincent and the Red Army come along with the intention of conquering that realm."

Nome paused for a moment, during which Kenny shouted: "Keep going, Nome. You're doing great! That sinister part we rehearsed, you're nailing it!" Skope jabbed Kenny in the leg after he had finished his exclamation.

Though to his credit, Nome _was _doing a very good job of seeming sinister. Even if it was an act that the medic was putting on, Guy still had no idea what Lime was planning to do to him, and that terrified him even more. "What is it, guys?" he asked as strongly as he could manage. "C'mon, just say it! Is it torture? Or is it some kind of hypnosis where I live out my worst nightmares for all eternity? Or what if…what if you're all going to tickle me…and I'm going to feel itches for the rest of my life for what I've done to you. That's it, isn't it? You're going to hypnotize me into nightmares while tickling me and doling out some other form of excruciating torture! Am I right? No? Yes? Fuck, I can't _take_ it anymore, _what the hell is it?!_"

"Nothing quite so dramatic," said Patton. "We're just going to beat the ever loving shit out of you."

Everyone in Lime rose as a group, suddenly towering over Guy menacingly.

_Well, looks like this is it,_ Guy thought to himself silently as he prepared to be assaulted from all sides. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for what was coming.

"Oy, cut that out, you twats!" said a thickly accented voice from the other side of the shield wall. Lime stopped at the same time Guy reopened his eyes. A band of Red soldiers was standing outside the cell, weapons firmly in hand. One of them, the leader if his tags served right, was standing at the front, and was the one whom had spoken. "Yo'll need to stand back, soon as we deat-vate the cell woll," the Red solider continued in his odd dialect, which Guy now judged to be some form of European. The nameplate on his armor read: RODERICK BALDERDASH. This was followed by a symbol which indicated the rank of Colonel.

Lime stood back, and the shield wall vanished into nothingness. Balderdash motioned down the hallway as Lime gingerly stepped out, single file. "Urry up, now! Vincent wonts ta see ya. Don't wanna keep 'im waitin, now do we?"

Patton uttered a grunt of disappointment, at having his revenge on Guy interrupted in such a manner as this. But he looked back at Guy with a fierce look in his visor, and Guy realized that this was far from over.

The Red soldiers escorted Lime through many a passage of the fortress under the giant Hand. The trek lasted for perhaps five minutes of winding pathways, which took the group steadily upwards, before they came to a circular room with a blue platform in its center. The platform was emitting a stream of blue light that traveled in a straight, tubular form, up through the open ceiling…and into The Hand above the fortress.

"Mmmmmm, it appears to be some kind of antigravity lift allowing for transportation from this facility to The Hand," Nome postulated.

The Red soldiers nudged the group towards the lift. "In yo'll go now," said Balderdash. "One at a time, c'mon."

Skope was the first to be shoved in front of the lift. He took a step in…and instantly felt a sensation of weightlessness. The ground left him, and he suddenly started to accelerate upwards, towards the opening in the ceiling of the room. Instead of weightlessness, he now felt as though some force was pushing up from under him, kind of like gravity, except acting the other way. He passed up through the hole in the ceiling, still moving faster along the path of the antigravity lift. He could see the mountain that contained the fortress, stretching out before him, but slowly becoming less significant as he traveled higher. His velocity seemed to have evened out by this point, because he no longer felt something pushing under him, and his height appeared to be increasing at a constant rate. Looking up, he could plainly see the objective of Lime's mission: The Hand loomed high above him, coming closer with every second, and looking as ominous as it ever had in this dimension's blood-red hued sunlight. He could see a circular opening at the bottom of The Hand which connected to the end of the tubular path of the antigravity lift. Sure enough, the path of the lift carried him through the opening, and then he was lifted down gently, by a similarly unseen force, onto solid ground.

The new chamber in which Skope found himself looked very similar to the one he had just come from: circular in shape, but this time, of course, the opening was in the floor instead of the ceiling. Skope turned around, now facing the lift, just in time to see Nome, Kenny, Jess, Patton, and soon the rest of Lime (including Guy, interestingly) come sailing through the opening in the floor and land around the circumference of the room.

Far above Lime, a ring of Reds were pointing their weapons down at the group, ensuring that they didn't have any way to escape while their escort team was in transit. After a moment, Balderdash and his men popped up through the floor, landing on the ground in various places among Lime. After collecting himself, Balderdash organized Lime into a straight line, with the Red soldiers surrounding them. He motioned to the largest of several doors leading out of the room, and Lime complacently followed.

This journey took quite a bit longer than the trip they had taken through the fortress. The Hand vastly dwarfed the fortress in size, so this made sense. The corridors didn't twist so much here, however. Instead, they were much straighter and wider. After perhaps ten minutes of walking, the group reached their destination. The doors opened to reveal a domed chamber with its semispherical wall made of a see-through material, so that the room looked out into the vista of the outdoors. A console stretched around the room, with a Red soldier seated along it at evenly spaced intervals. And in the very center of the room, relaxing peculiarly upon a rather squishy looking command chair, sat the subject of Lime's quest: Vincent the Fusion Coil, Leader of the Red Army.

Balderdash stepped forward. "My Lord, Lime Squadron has been brought."

The command chair swiveled slowly around to face Lime. "So I see…oh, yes. The pitiful band the Green-Yellow Alliance has sent to stop me, assembled for the last time." Vincent's core was glowing an energetic green, exemplifying his smugness. "But wait…who are you?" He was now pointing his front-facing side at Fred Oofig. "I do not remember you."

"I'm Fred Oofig," said Fred. "I joined with Lime when they escaped your Army's primary fortress."

"Oh, now I remember you!" Vincent exclaimed. "The one who always lights on fire spontaneously. You really ought to get that checked out." The coil then turned its attention to Amber. "Amber stone, a pity our relationship could not have lasted longer." He laughed.

Amber turned away in disgust. "I have nothing to say to you, Vincent. Whatever we had before is now over."

"Resistant even now, are you?" Vincent asked rhetorically. "A pity…" Moving on, the fusion coil now came to Guy Dudeperson. "And whom might you be? You have red armor, but are standing along with Lime Squadron. _Guy Dudeperson_, eh? Terrible name…"

"I was captured by Lime," Guy explained. "And then I lured them here. They forced me to take them somewhere. But when we got here, Balderdash and his men decided to imprison me along with them, because I had helped them under duress. But I always had the cause of this Army at heart, really I did. After all, I practically handed them over to you! I don't deserve to be a prisoner."

"Oh, don't you?" Vincent responded mockingly. "Well, Balderdash, I think this guy deserves a lollypop! Good job, Guy Dudeperson! Way to go. Fantastic work. You get a promotion, and a vacation, plus huge financial benefits, and a well deserved pat on the back, though I don't think I can do it, because I don't have limbs!" Vincent laughed. "In fact, just because you did such a brilliant job leading Lime Squadron to me, Mr. Dudeperson, I'm thinking of even throwing a huge celebration in your honor. Champagne, a ridiculously large layer cake, and some jazz music should suffice."

Guy nodded proudly. "Why, thank you, my lord."

Vincent floated over to his command chair. "Everyone, give Mr. Guy here a good clap. Go on!"

The Reds in the room complied by clapping haphazardly. Guy looked around the room while nodding at everyone. "Oh, I'm just _so_ glad you've come to your senses, my Lord. For a moment there, I thought I was going to suffer the same fate as Lime Squad—"

Vincent telekinetically hit a button on his command chair, and a trap door opened up beneath Guy. He was gone in the next instant, plummeting into the void of empty space underneath The Hand. "Idiot," Vincent commented as the trap door slid shut again.

Balderdash and his men began to giggle. At the same time, Lime stepped back from the place in the floor Guy had fallen through, shocked murmurs passing through everyone.

With the Red traitor out of the way, Vincent decided to stop wasting time, and floated up to the member of Lime he had really been meaning to talk to, his forward facing side staring this person straight in the visor. "Well, well, _Christopher Skope…_" the fusion coil said slowly and maniacally. "We were interrupted during our last meeting. But now I intend to see our words through. I want you to answer for what you did, Skope! I want you to answer for the act of blowing up my pile!"

"I told you before, I'm sorry!" Skope protested. "I had no idea, at the time, that fusion coils were sentient. I didn't mean to cause a genocide…it kind of just happened."

Skope didn't realize just what a horrible blunder of words he had uttered until Vincent screamed: "It kind of just happened? It kind of just…_happened,_ did it? Aha! Ahahahaha! Wait, where'd that civilization go? OOPS! I killed it! Soooo sorry!" The fusion coil allowed himself a short moment of hysterical, furious laughter, during which he floated around the command deck in a luminous rage. "I can't believe you just said that, Skope, really I can't. You want me to incinerate you, is that it? You want to fucking die, right where you're standing, is that right? You want me to vaporize you _at this very instant_, yes? Is that what you meant by '_IT JUST FUCKING HAPPENED_'?"

Skope now had his palm planted firmly over his visor. "I don't think I said that quite the way I should have."

"The worst understatement in the life of the universe!" Vincent exclaimed.

Colonel Balderdash cleared his throat. "Um, my lord, are you oll right? You seem a bit…off your rocker, is oll."

Vincent turned slowly in Balderdash's direction. "Be quiet, you. I will ask you to speak when I want you to speak." Balderdash nodded and stood a bit more stiffly, fearing the wrath of Vincent, especially when he was in one of his rage moods. Vincent turned one of sides back to face Skope. "Now then, I remember that when we last met, I was in the middle of showing you what I wanted to be your last sight before I gave you an excruciating death. Now, I believe it is time to finish that demonstration."

At once, a rumbling began to sound throughout The Hand. The great mechanic noise thundered throughout the massive craft. Only a few seconds later, the view outside the dome began to shift, slowly but with increasing speed.

"The Hand has started its engines!" Nome realized aloud. "And it is taking us somewhere."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Vincent confirmed sarcastically.

In front of the command dome, a brilliant white sphere of light suddenly appeared, quickly becoming larger than The Hand, and putting the size of the island to shame. No one needed to be told what this was. The only question was where the portal led to.

"Where are you taking us, Vincent?" Skope demanded.

"Have patience, my archnemesis," Vincent replied smugly. "All will be revealed in just a few moments. Though I should think that, once we reach it, you really ought to remember this place quite well."

The scene through the window was steadily becoming brighter as The Hand neared the portal. In just a few more moments it had cleared the last distance. The Hand passed into the portal, which bathed the room in a sea of light for the briefest instant. The light soon subsided, though it was a few more moments after that when Lime's eyes finally adjusted back to normal. When they did, a familiar sight greeted them through the dome windows. Stretching out before them was the Halothrii Wilderness. The Hand was approaching the canyon, and currently passing over the ruined bridge that used to be Blue Base Theta. As The Hand began to hover into the canyon, Lime could now see their base entrance structures on either end of the dome windows, Green Base to the left and Yellow Base to the right.

"Why are we here?" Skope asked nervously, fearing that he already know the answer.

As it turned out, he did. Vincent slowly turned to face Lime Squadron, his core glowing sinisterly. "The last thing I want you to see before you die, Christopher Skope, is the epic destruction of the place on this world that you know best: The Halothrii Wilderness!" As the fusion coil spoke, Lime could hear the sounds of something powering up on either side of the massive craft.

"No!" Skope shouted in desperation and horror.

Reveling in Skope's fear, as well as the rest of Lime's, Vincent whimsically ordered to the soldiers at the control panels: "Open fire on this sector. Target everything. I want nothing left standing by the time we are done. We have lasers, and I want this place to get totally screwed!"


	30. A Dent in the Universe

30 – A DENT IN THE UNIVERSE

The rumble of charging cannons intensified as The Hand prepared to blow the Halothrii Wilderness off of the map. Weaponless, Lime Squadron stood in the back of The Hand's command dome while Vincent yelled out orders to the Red soldiers on consoles around the room to open fire at will as soon as the laser generators had fully charged. "Please don't do this," Skope pleaded to Vincent. "I am sorry about what I did to your pile! We can talk about this. Figure something out that doesn't involve the destruction of the Halothrii Wilderness!"

Vincent only laughed. "Ah, Skope. You just don't get it, do you? Saying sorry doesn't cut it. It's not enough. And besides, I'm planning on ending your universe anyways. This will only be the very beginning."

"Is there nothing I can say to you that will make you stop?" Skope asked.

"Nothing whatsoever," Vincent replied smugly. "That ship has long sailed. Ah, but all this talk about the end of the universe does give me an interesting idea…yessss….I think I do know what the best course of action is for exacting my revenge upon you." His front side turned to face the Red soldier in the central console, which looked out through the forward direction of the dome. "Splosionman!" Vincent ordered. "Deactivate the laser generators. Instead, I want you to poke a dent in the universe at the top of the mountain peak in front of us."

"Aye, sir!" said the Splosionman. The electrical humming from either side of the ship suddenly stopped. But this was replaced, only a moment later, by an even greater source of humming, coming from directly below the chamber in which Vincent and Lime resided.

"Wait just a minute!" Skope protested. "I thought The Hand isn't capable of popping the universe! You still need a special device to focus The Hand's beam, to replace the one that was destroyed!"

"Foolish biped!" Vincent exclaimed. "Have you listened to anything that's been said? Of course The Hand cannot_ poke_ the universe. However, even without the Quantum Manipulator, The Hand can still deal damage to the fabric of space-time; unfocused, this will _dent_ the universe. Which, as far as you're concerned, is still enough to wipe out this entire sector of the planet!"

"You'll never get away with this, Vincent!" Amber shouted. "One way or another, you will be stopped!"

"Ah, my ex-lover finally speaks!" Vincent exclaimed. "Clichéd though that outburst may be, I still feel the need to respond to it, if only to alleviate any remaining hope that you may all still possess. I mean, what are you all expecting to happen, anyways? Do you think that Brian the Blue is going to come to your rescue and valiantly destroy this installation?" He allowed himself yet another bout of maniacal chuckling. "Because I think the existence of a pony civilization is about as likely as that happening!" One of the Red soldiers walked slowly up to Vincent and whispered something into one of his sides. Then Vincent exclaimed to Lime: "Actually, it appears that there _is _a civilization of ponies in one of the universes the Red Army has discovered. I think that might be a bit of a bad example. But even still, I think you all get my point."

"Brian is a Yellow now, or had you forgotten?" Amber corrected sternly.

Vincent paid her no mind, instead turning to stare out the dome windows.

"My Lord, The Hand is now fully charged to dent the universe!" one of the Red soldiers, at a console in the western side of the room, informed Vincent.

"Excellent!" Vincent shouted. "Fire when ready!"

The members of Lime Squadron tensed as a tremendous roar of mechanical vibrations thundered out from the point of the giant finger on the very tip of The Hand. The finger tip began to glow brilliantly, with the same white light as the portal that The Hand had traveled through only moments earlier. Vincent began to emit utterances of "Yes…yes…muhuhuhaha, mmm—oh yes!" as the fingertip became brighter and brighter. Soon the light became so intense that it was almost blinding, even with the adaptive tinting of the dome windows. The light seemed almost to envelop the entire canyon…and then…

It vanished into nothing.

Vincent stared out the dome windows, dumbfounded. "What?! …Defauq just happened? Where's my dent in the universe?"

The Splosionman cleared his throat nervously. Vincent rounded on him instantly. "What is it? Why has the charged shot of my Hand done nothing?"

The Splosionman gulped and replied. "We missed."

"I'm sorry?" Vincent shouted at him. "What was that?"

"We missed," the Splosionman repeated again.

"We missed," Vincent repeated, clearly having no idea what the Red soldier was talking about. He eventually continued: "What the hell do you mean…_we missed_?"

"The charged shot did not come in contact with the fabric of space-time in this universe," said the Splosionman nervously, his fear of Vincent's wrath being painfully apparent.

"I heard you correctly," said Vincent slowly and threateningly. "The thing I'm having a little bit of trouble understanding, however, is how…_in the heck_…you can miss a _FREAKING UNIVERSE!_"

The Splosionman was now cowering away from Vincent, trying to lean as much as he could without actually leaving his seat. "I'm sorry, my Lord. I did all I could. With no Quantum Manipulator, the focusing instruments are affecting the targeting modules as well…"

"I don't want to hear your whining," said Vincent tersely. "Whatever went wrong, just do your best to fix it."

"Yes, my Lord," said the Splosionman, nodding his head up and down violently out of nervousness.

"Another thing I want to know," Vincent continued in annoyance, "Is that, if the charged shot didn't impact this universe, then where the hell did it go?"

* * *

In the magical land of Equestria, the beautiful blue day was interrupted by a giant white light in the sky. The light fell down from the heavens, falling through the atmosphere. Flames soon began to appear around it, the air resistance causing the ball of light to heat up and lose much of its volume and energy. The ball was much smaller than it had been by the time it finally approached ground level: only about the size of a soccer ball. The light was coming down upon a garden of statues. In front of one of the statues, a group of several young ponies was in the midst of some kind of argument that had each individual fighting. The light fell lower still, its trajectory now aimed at a statue situated directly in front of these ponies; a statue of some odd creature that had the head of a pony, but a body made up of a variety of other species. The ponies did not notice the light, for they were far too focused on their own squabble. So it was to no one's attention when the light impacted the statue, a small luminescent circle shone out from the statue briefly, and then the statue slowly began to crack. The crack traveled up the body of the statue, a small crackling sound coming from it, though still none of the ponies bothered to notice.

* * *

Vincent turned away from the Splosionman in the front facing console. "Idiots," he mumbled to himself. "I am surrounded by idiots!"

"I can fix what went wrong," said the Splosionman. "By recalibrating the targeting subroutines, I will be able to manually aim the trajectory of the charged shot so that it stays within this universe when fires."

"Just do it!" Vincent snapped.

If Vincent had been looking out of the north facing dome windows at that point, he would have noticed four Yellows and a Purple come striding out of the teleporter leading to Yellow Command. He would have seen them look up, notice a giant hand floating above the canyon, and immediately start running to their base entrance structure. But instead, Vincent was currently facing Lime at that moment, so he had no idea that Lemon Squadron had returned to the Halothrii Wilderness. However, Lime Squadron did notice, since they were facing the opposite direction, where they could see the entire vista of the canyon through the dome windows.

"What are you looking at?" Vincent demanded as he scanned Lime Squadron with the side of himself that faced them. "Is there something on my core? Why are you all staring at me?"

"Nothing," said Clair. "We're just looking around, that's all."

Vincent studied Lime closely. "Oookay, fine…"

"My Lord, The Hand is ready to fire again!" the Splosionman reported.

Vincent turned to face the dome windows, just an instant after Lemon had all disappeared into their base entrance structure. "Well then, it is time to bring vengeance upon this sector! You know, this is the place where my pile was destroyed. This canyon, in particular, is full of dark memories. It will be good to be rid of it. Splosionman, prepare to fire! And this time, please _try_ not to miss the universe…"

The mechanical vibrations from the finger became audible again, steadily increasing in intensity. Also like the first time, a ball of light was beginning to appear at the tip of the finger. Patton looked around wildly for anything he could do to change the situation. It had to be now, because this time The Hand had every reason to hit its mark. His visor came upon Roderick Balderdash, who was standing vigilantly at the back wall of the room, keeping his own visor on Lime. But what interested Patton was something Balderdash was holding in his hands. "Hey, that's my shotgun!"

Balderdash regarded Patton with derisive surprise. "Wot?"

Patton strode over to Balderdash. "I said, that's my shotgun!"

Baldershash looked down to his hands, where the name Lucy stared back at him. "Eh, maybe it is. So wot?"

"No one comes between me and my shotgun! No one!" Patton shouted. Before Balderdash had any idea what was about to happen, Patton did a roundhouse kick that swept Balderdash's feet out from under him. A reach and a grab later, and Patton was reunited with his precious Lucy. Balderdash rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the shell Patton scattered at him.

It was at this point that the rest of Lime decided it might be a good time to burst into action as well. Nome pulled out a container of floss from his medical kit, took the end of the string in two fingers, and flung it out at the other Red guards in the room. The guards rushed forward, but by that point, the precisely calculated throw had landed the end of the floss string in the grating on the floor. Nome yanked on the floss string just as the guards reached it, and completely unprepared, the guards ended up tumbling over their own feet, their boots having been caught in the floss string.

Vincent turned around upon hearing the commotion. "What is going on over here?"

Lime sprinted over to the fallen guards, knocking them both unconscious with a punch to their visors, while Skope and Amber then picked up their assault rifles each. "Vincent, it is time for you to stop this!" Skope shouted at the fusion coil as he aimed the assault rifle at him.

"Foolish humans!" Vincent laughed. "No manmade weapons can stop me! Surely you have all figured that out by now."

"No, we can't," Skope admitted. "But we're hoping that whatever he's holding can." He pointed out the dome windows, down to the canyon floor, where Brain stood, just outside the Yellow's base entrance structure. He was holding in his hands what looked like a glowing yellow ball of light situated in between two metal plates connected by cords. Brian was aiming the device at The Hand as though it was some kind of projectile weapon.

Vincent followed Skope's gaze until he found Brian and the device he was holding. "NO!" the fusion coil suddenly shouted. He turned to the Splosionman. "Fire The Hand now!"

"But my Lord, The Finger is not yet fully charged. If the shot is released now, the canyon may survive—"

"I said fire it, damn you!" Vincent demanded, a panic beginning to sound in his voice. Whatever Brian was holding, it appeared that Vincent was actually afraid of it.

"Yessir," said the Splosionman, in no place to disagree.

Skope opened fire with his assault rifle, trying to kill the Splosionman before he could release the shot, but Vincent blocked his bullets with telekinesis. "Nice try, _Skope!_" Vincent exclaimed. "But it looks like your luck has finally run out!"

The sphere of light at the tip of The Hand's Finger was finally released. It raced towards the mountain that dominated the view atop the western canyon wall. Skope stared after the light, his horror matched in full by the other members of Lime Squadron. The light accelerated until it reached the mountain's tip, at which point it exploded, unleashing itself into a brilliant blue ball of swirling energy. The tip of the mountain was annihilated, its mass absorbed into the dark vortex that The Hand had unleashed upon it. The vortex was quickly expanding, and inside the brilliant blue shell surrounding the orb could be seen what looked like the view of a nebula from space. However, this was quickly obscured by flying debris, as matter ripped from the mountain began to swirl around the vortex that was victimizing it.

Vincent yelled out a cry of victory: "Mnyeahhhhh!" This exclamation temporarily took his focus off of Skope, who opened fire a second time on the Splosionman. His bullets impacted the Red soldier, ensuring that he would never again fire off energy from The Hand.

As Lime Squadron was fighting to gain control of the room, all of the other Red soldiers in it had by this point either died or fled. Balderdash had been among those who had run, recognizing that against a dozen enemy individuals, eleven of whom were highly trained, he stood not one sliver of a chance, especially since Patton had taken back Lucy from him, and he hadn't bothered to bring any other weapons with him. He had been the last Red to flee from the room. Now, the only individual still in the command dome who was not a member of Lime…was Vincent.

"It's over, Vincent!" Skope yelled as he held his assault rifle out towards the vengeful fusion coil.

"Oh, I beg to differ!" Vincent shouted proudly. "The Hand has fired. Your canyon will be destroyed! Not to mention that I am now free to dispose of all of you. _Skope_, you have seen the beginning of the end for your precious Halothrii Wilderness. You will be the first to die."

Vincent gathered his telekinetic strength, preparing to unleash terrible fury upon his worst enemies, which would thereby end the last true resistance he faced in exterminating the human race…when he noticed something outside which distracted him perhaps a little bit. The Yellow standing on the canyon floor just under The Hand, who Vincent now suddenly remembered (having been temporarily distracted by the second firing of The Hand), was still holding the device in his hands. And it was glowing and spinning much more madly than it had been the first time Vincent had noticed him. Finally, the device discharged. The ball of light was similar in appearance to the one The Hand had just fired, though much smaller, and it had a kind of reddish color to it instead of azure. This new light raced towards The Hand, and Vincent's horror grew as he watched it near him, for he knew exactly what the device was, as well as the energy projectile it had fired. The light impacted The Hand directly on The Finger, causing that appendage to break off and fall to the ground, where it created a brilliant explosion of flying metal and fire. At the same time, the remaining energy discharge of the light swirled throughout The Hand, causing sparks and setting off alarms everywhere it went.

The command dome shook and began to sway as the energy of the light passed through it. "How…" Vincent stuttered in shock and surprise. "How did the Yellow Army come upon that device? And how did _Brian_ get his hands on it? Oh, but of course! He's…" Vincent then noticed all the guns that Lime was pointing at him (all of them having been picked up from defeated Red soldiers), and realized that the tides had turned in his plans for universal domination.

Nome mmmmmed for a few seconds, while analyzing the effect that Brian's light seemed to be having on The Hand. "Whatever Brian has fired at this craft, it appears to have disabled The Hand's ability to fire projectiles altogether, while at the same time compromising its reactors. Whatever other actions Vincent was planning on using this craft to do to the universe, it cannot perform ever again. His plot is at an end."

Vincent stared around the command dome in dismay, his core's light glowing brighter and redder as the seconds passed. "Nonononono, this cannot be. My plans! Oh, all my wonderful plans! If only I had had the Quantum Manipulator, I could have ended the universe here and now. Vorennius has betrayed me. My own Army, _look at them run_, they have betrayed me as well! Damn them! Damn the Purples, damn the Reds, damn you Lime Squadron, _damn you all!"_

Objects inside the command dome began to fly off of the floors and desks. Vincent was powering up for a tremendous psychic attack. And this time, there was nothing to distract him. He was solely focused on ending Lime Squadron, now that they had shattered any chance he had had of completing his plans. It was time for Lime Squadron to be extinguished, like a flame caught in a monsoon, and nothing would be left of them (oh yes, Vincent would see to that!), absolutely nothing! Lime Squadron, at the very least, would pay in full for the trouble they had caused Vincent…with their lives! And Skope would finally be brought to justice for the destruction of Vincent's pile. Vincent could feel his energy summons reach its peak. The time had come to unleash all of his fury—

"Hey boss I think I found a teleporter activation key," said Ryan as he punched one of the buttons on the central console. Lime Squadron vanished before Vincent's front side in a flash of bright light, the teleportation system of The Hand carrying them to safety.

They all reappeared a few meters above the ground of the canyon floor. They landed upon it with various utterances of "umph" or "oomph". After dusting himself off, Skope looked upwards to see The Hand, now sparking violently along many of its mechanical joints, open up a spherical portal to somewhere and plunge into it. The portal dissipated only seconds after.

"Well, it looks like The Hand is gone," said Kenny. "That's good."

"But Vincent is still alive," said Skope.

"And there's that thing," said Clair, pointing. Indeed, the other members of Lime Squadron were reminded of the giant swirling vortex that had recently appeared to the west of the canyon. The mountain that the vortex had appeared at the tip of had now almost completely disappeared. Even now, Lime could see pieces of land flying around the vortex, before falling into it, consumed forever. As if this was not bad enough, the vortex, as well as its influence upon the land, was steadily growing. The ball of blue surrounding the vortex was much larger than it had been only minutes ago.

It didn't take a Nome to figure out that the vortex would consume all of the Halothrii Wilderness if it remained for very long, though he did try to point this out anyways: "At the present rate that the vortex appears to be increasing its radius, I estimate that this canyon will be destroyed within the next few hours. The entire planet, if the vortex is allowed to endure indefinitely."

"We are NOT leaving it there indefinitely Medic, don't worry," said Patton. Now it was his turn to point. Up in the sky, Lime could see a frigate floating over the Halothrii Wilderness. Its shadow blocked out the sun just as Lime started gazing upon it, and the canyon descended temporarily into darkness. "It seems that when a giant hand appears and starts spewing universe-destroying vortexes everywhere, people take notice," Patton continued.

"I know that ship!" said Jess. "That's the _Dark Side of the Moon._ Communication signals are often rerouted from our base in this sector, through that ship, so that they can reach other systems." Perhaps a hundred meters above Lime, the giant blocky craft floated. Though mostly grey, its sides were painted with a dominant green, thus representing the Army it belonged to.

Nome had opened his tacpad and moved his arm up in front of his visor. "_Dark Side of the Moon_, this is Nome Achentaughtensheloem Londontokyoparis of Lime Squadron. Do you copy?"

"Copy," said a male voice through Nome's tacpad, which was set on speaker. "I receive you Nome—_whoa_, you have one_ long_ last name!"

"Six point three standard deviations away from the mean average," Nome stated proudly.

"Well, hello, uh, Lime Squadron," said the controller. "I think the captain wants to speak to you."

The controller was replaced by a sterner, gruffer voice. "Lime Squadron. Glad to hear from you. Last I heard, you'd been sent to the bottom of Hell, as far as anyone in this universe knew. When The Hand entered normal space, we decided to investigate. But you guys apparently handled things nicely without us."

"Not everything," Hester stated into her own tacpad, having set it to the same transmission as Nome. "We couldn't stop The Hand from releasing that vortex over where the mountain used to be."

"Yes, so I see," said the captain. "I've already set some of my people to get in touch with Green and Yellow Commands. They probably won't be able to respond for at least twenty minutes, but I can start the construction of a containment facility."

"Much appreciated, _Dark Side of the Moon_," said Hester. She closed up her tacpad.

As the last sentence of the conversation was being finished, Lime could see several small craft come out of _Dark Side of the Moon_ and head towards the vortex. No one in Lime was sure what could be done to contain the vortex, but it was reassuring to know that someone somewhere did think something could be done.

All of Lime stared at the vortex when suddenly they heard the sound of panting coming from behind them. The group turned as one, to find Guy Dudeperson sprinting towards them. Their weapons were out in the blink of an eye. Guy stopped before the group. "Hey guys."

"You're still alive," said Wren tersely. "What the fuck?"

Guy nodded. "Yes, I can explain. You see, after Vincent opened that trap door in his command dome and I fell out of the ship, a gust of wind caught me, and blew me into the vertical path of the gravity lift connecting The Hand to the fortress below it. But by that time, both doors leading into The Hand and into the fortress had closed, so instead of being floated into one place or the other, I was left of bounce back and forth between both entrances. Then The Hand started moving, and it took me with it, because the gravity beam was still turned on! I've always wondered what it's like to go through a slipspace jump outside of a ship, in just your armor. I think I know now. Anyways, I kept bouncing between the top and bottom of the gravity lift, until that Yellow person fired that device at The Hand, and for some reason that turned off the gravity lift…finally!"

Most members of Lime were nodding their heads slowly, though Kenny was trying to stifle a laugh. "Ooookay," said Ryan. "So…after The Hand let you loose…why did you come to us?" As Ryan finished his sentence, Kenny proved unable to hold back his laughter any longer, and entered into a fit of private snickering.

"Because, now that I'm on this planet, I have nowhere else to go," Guy replied slowly. "And because I wanted to say that I'm sorry for betraying you, even though I was your prisoner."

Patton let out a laugh, which was an unnatural and difficult thing for him to do. "You're _sorry?_ Now I know how Vincent felt when he was verbally patting you on the back! You know, normally I would enter into a little sarcastic rant myself, while parading you around the sector so that everyone can see how stupid you are, but I've had a very exhausting last 48 hours, so fuck it!" He aimed Lucy at Guy's face. "On your knees, hands behind your back…"

"Oh come on!" Guy protested. But nevertheless, he did as he was told.

"Hey, what's happening, Pinkie?" said a distant voice. Lime turned to see Hearts, Deryn, Tom, and Brian running towards them, with Master Chief floating along as well. Hearts and Patton entered into a close-armed hug. At the same moment, Hester and Deryn did the same, though Hester's physical greeting was more like a shake of the hand, and much less personal than Patton and Hearts'. "You made it back!" Hearts exclaimed to Patton, but also directed a bit at everyone. "Look guys, I'm sure we all have a lot to talk about, but there's a giant vortex that's eating up the canyon right now, so I think we need to do something about that before we catch up. However, I do think we need to know a couple things, though." He pointed to Guy. "Who's he?"

"A Red prisoner we captured," answered Patton. "He served as our guide through a significant part of our journey. But once we got to The Hand, he turned on us. Then some things happened regarding alliances, and he actually tried to rejoin us just now. It didn't go over so well."

Hearts nodded. "I see." He then pointed at Fred Oofig. "And who's he?"

Hester answered this time. "He's someone who used to be a Red prisoner, who we liberated. During the course of our mission, he has lit himself on fire…and some other things, if I recall…but mostly just lighting himself on fire. Accidentally. Somehow."

It was now Hearts' turn to nod his head slowly. "I see…" Fred offered his gauntlet out to Hearts, and he shook it.

After the brief reunion was over, Lime turned to face the space that had used to be the mountain atop the western wall of the canyon. The vortex now loomed in its place, swirling madly. _Dark Side of the Moon_ had, by this point, managed to set up a perimeter fence around it, but it was plain to see that this would not even slow down the expansion of the vortex. After a few people nodded to each other, the group began to make for the site of the vortex, with Guy being dragged along with them.


	31. A Call From The Vortex

31 – A CALL FROM THE VORTEX

Lime Squadron and Lemon Squadron were almost to the western canyon wall when _Dark Side of the Moon_ sent down a Pelican for them. They all stepped into it, single file, and it began to take them up. As everyone took a seat for the brief ride, Hester ended up closest to the pilot's seat. "How's the situation up there?" she asked.

"You'll see in just a few seconds," said the pilot. "_Dark Side of the Moon _is going to set up a containment facility around the vortex, or at least try to. It'll have to be a pretty damn big facility, to surround the vortex given how large it is and how fast it's expanding."

As the Pelican rose above the height of the canyon wall, the group could now see that the pilot had stated his information partly correctly: _Dark Side of the Moon _was trying to surround the vortex, but it wasn't doing so by building a facility around it; it was doing so by laying itself _on top_ of it. At the moment, the _Dark Side of the Moon_ was in the process of lowering itself down on top of the portal. The group could see a huge compartment on the bottom of the ship opening up as the _Dark Side of the Moon _neared the ground. As large as the vortex was, the ship was still larger. The compartment on the bottom of the ship swallowed up the vortex like a great maw, and the ship finally finished settling down upon the ground's surface.

The pilot opened up a channel with _Dark Side of the Moon's_ controller. "Requesting permission to dock."

"Roger, Roger," came the reply. "Landing Bay 3 is open."

The pilot, whose name was Roger, apparently, said back: "Yup, there it is on my HUD. I copy your vector, Victor. By the way, when the captain said this ship was going to settle down, I didn't think he meant literally! What's his plan, exactly? Does he not think this seems a bit dangerous?"

"I haven't been told much about that yet," replied the controller, Victor. "But the science teams have been rallied into a frenzy. Yeah, the captain definitely has something planned. But I don't know what it is."

The Pelican was now dropping down into the landing bay. Lime and Lemon hopped out as soon as it reached the floor. A soldier was waiting for them near one of the doors leading into the ship. He motioned to Lime and Lemon, and the group walked over to him. "I've been ordered to escort you to the captain." He turned around and began walking through the door as a brisk pace. The group diligently followed him. The escort led Lemon and Lime on a rather long tour of the ship. Their path made many twists and turns, like a three dimensional maze. Chaos was clearly afoot on the _Dark Side of the Moon_; on several occasions, the escort had everyone hastily move to one side of the corridor or the other, to let teams of Green soldiers run by in a hurry. Understandably, the crew of the ship had been caught unexpectedly by the appearance of the vortex, and so everyone was now in a frenzy to try to do something about it. After perhaps the fifteenth intersection, the escort assured the group that they were almost there; they just had to pass through a special kind of construction factory and then a little bit further past that. They walked down a hall of glowing yellow tubes and made a turn into a much larger room, holographic signs indicating it to be the aforementioned construction facility.

This new room had its floor one level below the walkway upon which the group now stood, with doors leading out of all sides on either level. Supported on the upper level was a giant mech, this one even larger than the kind Lemon had fought on board the _Avant Garde._ This mech was far taller and bulkier than the Purple Army's mechs had even dreamed of being, and appeared to have greater firepower as well; a multi barreled cannon sat on its right arm, and a salvo of rockets could be seen on the other. It was clearly under construction, because it was situated inside an assembly rack and surrounded by mechanical arms. Nevertheless, its sight left its mark.

The group stopped upon seeing the mech. "Now that's impressive!" Ryan exclaimed.

The escort nodded. "Oh, yes. This is a prototype, called the Cyclops. It's state of the art, but as you can see, it hasn't been completed yet, so we haven't yet tested it."

"When you finish, I would love to," stated Ryan.

"That might be a bit difficult to arrange," said the escort, no doubt referring to the fact that Ryan was not a member of the Green Army, and only a guest on board the _Dark Side of the Moon. _ It didn't help that some other Yellows, namely Patton and Hester, were giving Ryan odd looks.

It was at that moment that Ryan came to his senses. "Ah, right, of course. We're in an alliance, but still in different Armies."

"Can we continue?" the escort asked.

Ryan nodded, and the group pressed onwards. They meandered through several more hallways, passing through a couple different levels of the ship as well. The encounters with other soldiers, hurrying along madly, increased significantly as the group neared the site of the vortex, which was a sure sign that the escort was leading them in the right direction. Eventually, they came to a comparatively large corridor which, as the escort informed them, was right outside the compartment of the ship containing the portal. The entrance to the chamber led into a trough in the floor, more than large enough for the group to walk through, the sides of which were lit with glowing blue tubes. The chamber the group was in was really a large hallway, a cargo pathway, which led up to a shimmering wall at the corridor's end. Waiting for everyone a few paces down the corridor was a Green soldier wearing lots of medals.

The escort motioned for the group to approach the new soldier, and they walked as a group up to him. The soldier held his hand out to the person nearest him, who happened to be Nome. "Phinnias Deen, Captain of the _Dark Side of the Moon._"

Nome reached out and shook the captain's gauntlet. "I am pleased to meet you. My name is Nome."

The captain nodded. "Ah, yes. The one with…the last name. Of course." The other people in the group introduced themselves to the captain as well, but most did little more than a hand shake, since time was so pressing. Once formalities had concluded, the captain motioned for the group to follow him, and began walking slowly down the trough. He spoke to Nome, though he clearly intended the entire group to hear him.

"We were in low orbit when we picked up a strange energy signature in the Halothrii Wilderness. When we realized it was The Hand, we brought ourselves down to the surface immediately. The Hand had jumped by the time we arrived here, of course, but we decided that we could still do something about the vortex. Basically, this ship has set one of its fighter bays around the vortex by opening up its floor and just setting the ship down on top of it. The way we've kept the vortex from absorbing this ship is by padding the walls of the fighter bay with shield walls, which, according to extremely hasty predictions by my science teams, is able to keep the vortex at bay by trapping all electromagnetic activity within the fighter bay, creating a kind of Faraday Cage, if you're familiar with the term."

Nome nodded, having had many experiences with Faraday Cages during the time he had worked at Avalanche Base. "Yes, I understand your strategy for containing the vortex. But exactly how long, have your science teams predicted, will the shield walls of the fighter bay be able to hold back the vortex? A Faraday Cage might serve to prevent any electromagnetic distortions from getting out, but I should think that the _gravimetric _distortions of the curved space generated by the vortex will eventually create gravitational disturbances sufficient enough to disengage the shield walls…and destroy this ship."

The captain took a moment to mentally decipher Nome's science jargon before replying: "Um, yes, you're right, unfortunately. I distinctly remember the lead scientist expressing upon me the temporary nature of this strategy. One way or another, this ship will have to lift off of the vortex, _within the hour_, in order to survive. I am hoping that Green and-or Yellow Command will have responded by that time, and will be able to provide a more permanent means of containing the vortex."

By this point, the group had reached a ramp which led up to the shimmering wall. The group followed the captain up it, coming upon a higher platform set at the very end of the spacious corridor. At the opposite side of the platform was the shimmering wall that everyone had noticed before. The group approached it gingerly. Through the barrier of shield walls, they could see a pillar of blue light, crackling and waving like lightening, extending up from a depression in the floor. Debris and mist swirled around this pillar. The sphere that was the actual vortex was quite certainly atop this pillar of light, but the view allowed by the door ended before the view of the portal could be seen. The group just stared at the pillar of light, entranced by its strange beauty.

Suddenly, Brian's armor started shimmering. Sparks and flashes of light were flaring all over Brian's shields. The rest of the group turned to face him. "What's wrong?" Hearts asked.

"I-I dunno!" Brian stammered. "I think it's the Quantum Manipulator. The instant I stepped close to the vortex, it just started going…crazy! Help!" Brian's armor was now sparking madly.

A rumbling shuddered from underneath Lemon and Lime's feet. The floor shook, and the lights dimmed. Alarms began to blare. The captain struggled to hold onto something as he answered a transmission on his tacpad. "It's the lead science team," he answered after a moment. "The vortex is reacting violently to whatever is in Brian's armor!"

"It's the Quantum Manipulator!" Deryn shouted over the noise. "We should never have brought it on board. It's making the vortex go volatile!"

Nome shouted: "You brought a _Quantum Manipulator_ on board the ship, and took it next to a _hyperdimensional vortex?_ Have you exhausted your mental capacity?" The medic sounded unusually cross. The fact that Nome felt he had reason to be angry did not bode well for Brain.

"I'm sorry!" Brian protested as the flashes continued. "I'm not an expert or whatever on vortex-ey things! I had no idea this would happen!"

"You have endangered us all!" Nome responded angrily.

"Oh my God look!" Jess exclaimed, pointing excitedly at something on the other side of the shield wall barrier. The group turned, almost as one, to see that the vortex had lowered itself much closer to the floor of the fighter bay. The giant ball of swirling chaos was flashing madly, and had clearly gained more energy in just the last few moments, presumably from its close-proximity interaction with the Quantum Manipulator, if Nome's concerns were to be believed. A perhaps more terrifying illustration of this fact was that the shield walls were rattling, the gravitational anomalies of the vortex causing them to strain to their greatest capacity. Both Lime and Lemon knew what would happen to the ship of the shield walls failed.

In addition to having gained more energy, it also appeared that the sight of the sphere had changed as well. Instead of the view of some nebula from space, as the sphere had previously shown, the sight now glimpsed was of a far different location. A rocky and desolate landscape revealed itself through the sphere of the vortex. The whole land was hued with a dark green coloring. A yellow sun glimmered just above the horizon, but its light did little to lessen the ominousness of the glow of this place. Gigantic green crystals jutted up from the ground, some of them tens of meters high. These crystals were clearly where the green hue was coming from. A base could be seen as well, its buildings stationed haphazardly around the region. The buildings were small, yet definitely manmade, and were somehow managing to exist in the landscape despite the chaotic terrain that the great green crystals forced upon the climate.

Everyone in both Lemon and Lime Squadrons felt something odd upon seeing this sight. It was a sensation of distant recognition that set upon the group, a calm notion that this place, or perhaps the memory of it, was locked deep back inside their minds. "Is anyone here having a sense of Déjà Vu?" Ryan asked. "Like…something we remember…but very distantly…yet at the same time, I can't help feeling…like this place…shouldn't exist. Like, for some unexplained reason, we aren't supposed to know about it."

Clair nodded. "Yeah, I'm getting that kind of feeling too. Seeing this place is almost like having a dream, except that this dream is a memory, and it's a memory that I've shut away deep in the very back of my mind long ago…or maybe something else shut it away, I don't know…" Looking around, Clair could see that everyone else was under the exact same influence from the image as she and Ryan were.

"Guys…" said Brian, his armor still flashing. "I'm feeling a presence. Like, inside my head. And it's familiar…"

_Help me._

Lemon and Lime jolted in unison, many people reaching up to cradle their helmets. "Ohmyfuckinggod," exclaimed Jess. "Did you guys feel that?"

"A voice inside my head?" Kenny asked. "Yeah. Guys…I'm starting to get seriously weirded out right now!"

_Help me!_

"It just repeated!" Hester had both of her hands up to her helmet.

"I know that voice…" said Brian slowly, as though he was in a trance. "So familiar…"

_Aeternius, I can sense you. Please find me._

The voice was fainter now, like a sound fading farther away, yet more like a presence in that regard. By this point, most of the group was able to pinpoint a nature to this voice. It was male, soft yet strong and wise, and whenever it expressed itself, there was always a feeling of calmness.

_I will help you now. But you must find me…_

Suddenly, the ship stopped shaking. The flashing and sparking on Brian's armor lessened. And beyond the shield wall barrier, the group could see the vortex begin to rise back to its original position in the fighter bay. The image of the crystal landscape had faded, and its place had been taken up by the nebula again. It was only a few more moments later that the alarms stopped. The group calmed down and began to take deep breaths.

The captain was on his tacpad again. He soon reported: "Somehow, the vortex has reverted to its normal state. I don't know how this is possible, and the science teams don't either, because the Quantum Manipulator is still in the vortex's proximity. But nevertheless, this is good news, because it means that this ship gets to survive another moment."

"Right before the vortex calmed down again, that voice said that it would help us," said Skope. "But did I really hear it, or was it some kind of hallucination?"

"I think we're all wondering that right about now!" exclaimed Wren.

"I am receiving reports from members of my crew," said the captain. "They all experienced the temporary power outages, but it was only us, and a few other people near this part of the ship, who experienced the dreamlike sensation from the vortex image. I think that whatever caused what we felt had an area effect."

Hester nodded. "Captain, I realize that the vortex still threatens both this ship and the canyon, but is there really anything we can do at this point?"

"Your squad?" the captain asked. "No, I don't think so. I appreciate that you all came to help, but I think this situation needs to be handled by the aid the Green and Yellow Commands send." He glanced briefly at something on his tacpad screen. "As a matter of fact, I have just been informed that forces from both Commands have just entered this sector. Lemon Squadron, Lime Squadron, I thank you for your time, but do not need anything more from you. You may stay on this ship if you like; we have more than enough quarters to accommodate you."

Patton shook his head. "No, that's fine, captain. We need to be heading back to our respective bases, and in any case, I don't think anyone here would want to stay this close to a giant vortex that swallows everything around it."

The captain nodded. "Of course."

The group headed back towards the docking bays, to the shuttle that would return them to the canyon floor and their base entrance structures. They passed through the room with the Cyclops mech in it, but this time Ryan did not ask to test the giant robot. It was only about five minutes after parting ways with the captain that Lemon and Lime reacquainted themselves with Roger, the pilot of the Pelican they had taken in. They all hopped in quickly, and then the bird was off.

As the Pelican took flight over the canyon, Lemon and Lime could see several other pelicans coming down towards the sector, floating down like a fat rain from several frigates far above them. These new frigates were colored in mixes of yellow and green, a symbol of the newly forged alliance between those two Armies. Looking out the back of the Pelican, they could see the _Dark Side of the Moon_ beginning to take off. The frigate lifted off of the top of the western canyon wall, and as it did so, the vortex became chaotically apparent underneath it, its chaos flowing out from under the ship as the fighter bay was lifted off of it. At the same time, Pelicans coming in from the other frigates coalesced around the vortex. Soldiers of Green and Yellow armor rushed out of their VTOLs, most of them carrying equipment of some kind. They formed a ring around the vortex, just far enough from it that they were not in danger. Then they deployed their equipment, and the machinations unfolded to form into a new perimeter fence. It looked, at the moment, much the same as the fence deployed earlier by the crew of the _Dark Side of the Moon,_ but Lemon and Lime could see that this new fence was designed in such a way that it would serve as the foundation for a far more elaborate means of encasing the vortex, presumably a facility of some kind.

This was the moment when the Pelican, descending so as to let off its passengers on the canyon floor, dipped low enough that the group no longer had a view of what was going on atop the western canyon wall. A few seconds later, the Pelican reached the bottom of the canyon and allowed its passengers out. "Have an nice day, y'all," Roger called to Lemon and Lime as they hopped onto the grassy ground. "Just let me know if you need any more transpiration, while the _Dark Side of the Moon_ is still at this planet, and I'll see what I can do." Lemon and Lime waved goodbye to the pilot as he took off again. Then the group slouched down and exhaled.

"What a morning," exclaimed Clair as she checked her HUD and realized that it was only 0700 hours.

"Yeah, I think it's been a long night for all of us," said Deryn.

Hearts walked over to Patton and Hester. "We've got a lot to talk about. Inez is back at the base, looking after a Purple we picked up recently, as well as a Green, and she's probably waiting for us. I think it's time to get some R&R, maybe some lemonade, and then we should talk."

Patton nodded. "Sure thing. Do we take the Red as well?"

"Wait a minute," said Skope. "Who's the Green you picked up?"

He didn't have to wait long for an answer, because the group heard panting, and looking over, saw Kevin running over to them from the Yellow's base entrance structure. _"Guys!"_ the Green recruit exclaimed as he ran up to them. There were no hugs, but the Greens were nevertheless happy to see Kevin.

"Dude, what the heck happened?" Kenny shouted over to him. "After that Falcon crashed at the Red Fortress, it was like you disappeared or something!"

"Long story," Kevin replied, panting. "But let's talk about it inside, okay?"

The Greens nodded and began walking to their base entrance structure, with Fred Oofig walking along with them, since he didn't exactly have anywhere else to go. At the same time, the Yellows began walking towards their own base entrance. Much had happened since Lemon and Lime had last seen each other, and there was to be much time spent catching up, with stories abound from both parties.


	32. Some R&R

32 – SOME R&R

Most of the members of Green Team crashed the instant they stepped out of the elevator, into their underground base. Having been awake for more than forty eight hours during their quest in the alternate universes, the R&R was all too necessary. No less than five minutes after arriving, Skope could already hear loud snoring resonating through the door to Kenny's quarters as he passed down the hall. Fred Oofig was right behind him.

Fred Oofig had decided to join Green Team immediately after they had all been dropped off from the Green frigate _Dark Side of the Moon_. Oofig normally went off to explore other dimensions via a special ability he had to create a portal to a random alternate universe; something else he was able to do other than light himself on fire. Oofig had explained to the Greens on their way back to base, that he did not have control over the destinations of the portals he opened; the dimensions they connected to seemed entirely random and unpredictable, yielding a new and unexpected reality every time. But Oofig had used this ability nevertheless, to travel and explore.

However, Oofig had come to realize that traveling had no longer become safe, because the pursuits of the Red Army were steadily encroaching upon the multiverse. It was now all too frequent for Oofig to suddenly stumble upon a Red camp or outpost in a dimension that he happened to be exploring (which was how he had been captured and taken to Vincent's Fortress). Furthermore, Oofig had also told of landscapes of great black spikes that jutted up from the ground in many dimensions he had come to in the last week. These spikes appeared to terraform whatever dimension they were found in, aggressively murdering any other life that got in their way. Oofig didn't know for sure where these spikes were originating from, though he suspected that the Red Army was responsible.

In any case, the reality was that Oofig could no longer travel to other dimensions, because the risk of capture by the Reds was simply too great. He was effectively trapped in the normal universe because of this plight, and therefore needed someplace to stay. The Yellows had refused to take him because they had to take care of two other individuals already, both now their prisoners: a Purple named Travis Chamealon and a Red named Guy Dudeperson. And so, Green Team had been the only option left to Oofig. Fortunately for him, the Greens had proved more accommodating then the Yellows, agreeing to let him become part of their team.

Oofig followed Skope down the hall. There happened to be a few rooms left to spare. Oofig chose the one closest to the end of the hallway, so that he would not have to walk as far to reach the bathroom, for in case he should accidentally light himself on fire while in his room and need water immediately. He didn't have very many belongings to set up, having always traveled light while exploring other dimensions. He had his quarters prepared in less than three minutes, at which point he headed down to the kitchen. There, he intended to properly introduce himself to the Greens. He might be trapped in this universe, but at least he had a place to stay, and friends to help him cope.

* * *

Travis Chamealon was currently experiencing a sensation of Déjà vu. He was stuck in a Yellow Base holding cell—again—and was situated right next to another prisoner, from another Army, who was initially indifferent about positively relating to him—again. Ryan, who had just put him and Guy Dudeperson into their respective cells, turned to leave. Travis rushed up to the cell wall. "But I helped you guys! I helped Lemon Squadron get off the _Avant Garde_ alive! How can I still be your prisoner?"

"Hey, relax, will you?" said Ryan. "This is just temporary. We need to talk to Command, make sure that they give us the go-ahead. We can't just adopt every single person who happens to help us out a bit. But I feel optimistic that Command will accept you, because you're right, you_ did_ help out Lemon quite a bit, from what I've overheard from them. So chill."

Guy Dudeperson was also come up to the front of his cell. "And what about me?"

Ryan turned to face the Red and slowly shook his helmet. "You did help us out, but then you tried to backstab us. Then your own Army turned its back on you, and with nowhere else to go, you came back to us, begging for us to take you in despite what you had done. Command will be the decider on this…but it really doesn't sound too good, man. I wouldn't get your hopes up if I were you. Sorry." He swiveled around and left the cell block.

Guy was now staring at the ground. Travis called over to him: "Hey, I know exactly how you feel."

Guy looked up slowly at the Purple. "I doubt that very much. I was taken prisoner by Lime Squadron, forced to take them on a multiverse road trip through other dimensions. Then I lead them back to my Army, because what the heck else was I supposed to do…and then my Army decides I'm a traitor for helping Lime at all…so now I have no affiliation and everyone hates me. So if you really think you know how I feel, I think you should guess again."

Travis moved his helmet a bit closer to the glass. "Dude, I know _exactly _how you feel. You think you've had it bad? You don't know the half of it!" Travis told Guy about everything that had happened to him over the course of the last four days. Be began his story by describing the mission he had been given, to infiltrate Yellow Base and gain information for his own Army. He told of how the Yellows figured out that he was a Purple spy, at which point they imprisoned him in that same cell, and Clair had soon after tortured him by firing plasma grenades at him in a room outlined with shield walls. Then he told of his alliance with Kevin Guinness, of how they had plotted escape together, and of how Kevin had left Travis behind when escape had been so very close. He continued his story by describing in detail how the Reds had broken into Yellow Base and abducted him while the Yellows had been off defending their Army's Command. He talked about his imprisonment on the Red Fortress and the continuation of the plasma launcher-shield wall torture that had been inflicted upon him by the Reds. He took a short breath at that point. And then he began ranting about his rescue of Lime Squadron, and his escape from the Red Fortress, followed by how he had taken Kevin to the _Avant Garde_, just to have Vorennius imprison him on his Army's own capitol ship, because he had ended up saying some very stupid things while in the presence of the Admiral. Finally, he got to the point where he had been rescued by Lemon Squadron, helped them gain possession of the Quantum Manipulator, and then helped them to escape the _Avant Garde_, finally ending up back here, in this cell. He decided to give his voice box a rest by that point.

Guy just stood still the whole time, listening. After Travis had ended his story, it was a few moments before Guy figured out what to say. Eventually he came up with: "…Wow…holy shit, dude."

"I know, right?" said Travis. "Just when I think my life can't possibly get any stupider…it always does."

"You're still in a better position than I am, though," said Guy.

"Oh?" enquired Travis. "How's that?"

"That Yellow guy, Ryan I think his name is, he said that it's probable Yellow Command will accept you. Then you'll be free. But I'll probably still be in here."

"That's true," said Travis. "But I'm tired of being a prisoner, and I don't want to see other people in that same situation. So if I do get accepted into the Yellow Army, then I'm going to do everything in my power to get you out of that cell."

Guy was gawking at him again. "For real?"

Travis nodded. "Yes, for real."

"But…why?"

"I've learned something during my many recent imprisonments," Travis explained. "Things turn out best when you treat people honestly. No spying, lying to cover up your identity, or plots to get revenge on someone who's betrayed you. Everything was fine for me until I started my disastrous spying career for the Purple Army. I learn nothing during my stay at Avalanche, nor at that Blue Base, and then I get to this base, and WHAM, I get sent on the stupidest sequence of events in my life. For a long time, I have lived insincerely. But I'm done with that now. I've changed. And that's why I'm going to help you, not to further my own cause, but because I don't want to see you make the mistakes that I have."

"Wow," Guy commented. "Thanks." They both sat down and thought quietly for a moment. Then Guy said: "So, I guess we're friends now, yes?"

Travis nodded. "Real friends. No more spying, no more lying. Not for me."

* * *

For Lemon Squadron, it was another moment of sitting around the kitchen table and catching up on things. Patton, Hester, and Wren informed the others about their quest in the alternate dimensions while Hearts, Tom, Deryn, and Inez gave the story of their mission on the _Avant Garde_. They had been talking for the better part of an hour when the group collectively realized that it would probably be a good idea to inform Bradley of everything that had happened as well. Then, it was a march to the comm room. Lemon piled into the room, which was rather spacious, yet still somewhat cramped with the entire Squadron inside of it. Hester walked up to the holographic console and typed in the codes to contact the bridge of Yellow Command.

A short moment passed, but eventually Bradley's visor appeared before them in all three of its dimensions, this time in the appropriate size. "Ah, Lemon!" he greeted. "It is good to speak to you, but you were already debriefed when you returned from the _Avant Garde_. Is there something you forgot to tell me?" He then noticed that the members of Lemon who were also in Lime Squadron were standing there. "Ah, yes! I have heard of what happened with The Hand in the canyon just now. Did everyone make it back alive?"

"Yup, we're all in one piece," said Hearts.

"Good, good," said Bradley. "Bro, good to see you again!" Patton nodded back at him. Bradley continued: "You disabled The Hand, and then helped _Dark Side of the Moon_ to contain the vortex it unleashed. Excellent work!"

Wren cleared her throat. "Actually, it wasn't us who disabled The Hand."

"What?" Bradley wondered aloud. "Well then, who was it?" He looked at Patton. "Bro, was it you? Tell me it was!"

Patton shook his helmet. "It was…" he started. "…I still can't fucking believe it, but it was…"

"Brain," Hester conceded for him. "Brain, from the canyon floor, single-handedly disabled The Hand using some kind of device."

"Brian," mumbled the Lord High Commander General. "How very…peculiar. And he used the device, did he?"

"That is correct," said Hester.

Bradley nodded. "I thought that device might come into use. While you were gone—those of you who are in Lime—Brain went on a little adventure with Master Chief, during which he somehow was able to assemble a device capable of overloading The Hand's reactors. He has told us about his adventure, but even still, we have no idea how he was able to assemble the device." The Lord High Commander General then changed his tone. "Ah, but we have more thing to talk about than just Brian. Those of you in Lime, I want to know exactly what happened to all of you while you were away. What was your own adventure like?"

Patton, Hester, and Wren each took their turns in telling Bradley what had transpired during their excursion into the multiverse. Bradley listened intently as they spoke. Their story was, of course, a long one, and the better part of a half an hour had passed by the time they had finished.

Bradley nodded at all of them as soon as they had finished telling him everything. "The implications of what you have told me are profound. Firstly, that our universe is only one of an untold number of alternate universes, each stranger than the last. Secondly, that Vincent has established his own Fortress, and his Army is empirically expanding its territory throughout this multiverse. And thirdly, that The Hand, while no longer able to destroy this universe, is still functional enough to fire its other weaponry."

Hearts stated: "Sir, if that last part is true—and we all saw The Hand jump into slipspace, so it must be—then that means The Hand is still able to devastate whatever sector it chooses, by annihilating it just like it did to the Blue territory not far from the Halothrii Wilderness. It would appear that Lime's mission is not yet over, even though the universe itself is now safe."

"And since Lime has returned, that mission is yours as well, now," said Bradley in response.

"Does that mean there's going to be another mission into the other universes?" Deryn asked. "Because if so, than I'd love to accompany Lime this time."

Bradley took a moment to think about it, then shook his head. "No, I don't think that will be necessary. We have the device to overload it, and we've all just seen experimental proof that it works. So what we need to do is just wait for it to jump back into this universe, and fire at it a second time with the device. The first blast crippled it. A second should destroy it completely."

Tom nodded. "Yeah, that makes good sense."

Deryn bowed her visor. "So, it's decided then. We wait."

Hearts stepped closer to the holographic console. "There is another, small, matter we need to discuss with you, sir."

The image of Bradley's visor turned to face Hearts. "Yes, what is it?"

"This base is currently holding two prisoners, a Purple and a Red. You have been sent their files, I do believe."

Bradley nodded. "Of course. I have them pulled up on a window in front of me right now, in fact." His visor peered downwards for a moment, to a place outside of the view offered by the projection. He looked up a short moment later. "Chamealon and Dudeperson."

"They have both requested to join the Yellow Army, as you know," Hearts stated. "Have you come to a decision?"

"I have," said Bradley. "Firstly, I should talk about the Purple. When he first came to your base, Chamealon was a sniveling spy for the Purple Army, intent only on leaking out valuable information. But it seems that the recent events concerning him, namely his several imprisonments, has changed him. During the mission you just returned from, you found him on his own Army's capitol ship. He was being held in the brig only temporarily, and would have been released by his own people. But instead, he placed his trust in you. He helped you to steal a valuable artifact, and then escape, ending up responsible for who knows how many deaths of his own people in the process. The Purple Army will never want anything to do with him again after this. Therefore, he is a good man, as far as we are all concerned. He has my permission to join."

Hearts crossed his arms. "I see. And what about Dudeperson?"

Bradley sighed. "I haven't figured out what to do with him yet. He is in much the same situation as Chamealon, having betrayed us and then been disowned by his own Army, such that he now has no remaining allegiances. However, unlike Chamealon, Dudeperson has not yet made an action of genuine trust towards us. What he did to lead Lime Squadron through the multiverse was motivated simply by his captivity, as was exemplified when he betrayed everyone once they had finally reached The Hand. He may no longer be a member of the Red Army, but I am still not willing to trust him yet. In fact, I think it's best that _you_ should decide what to do with him. Don't kill him: I might still change my mind. I think he really needs another chance to prove himself. But right now I have more pressing concerns to think about. And so do all of you."

Hearts nodded. "Understood."

"Well, that's that then," said Bradley. "Is there anything else that needs discussing?"

"No Sir," said Tom. "Not at the moment."

"Well then, this meeting is concluded. Bro, it's good to see you made it back." Patton walked up to the hologram of his brother, and the two of them managed a version of their arm hug. Then Bradley signed off, and the console went dark. Then Lemon Squadron, including those of them who were now in Lime Squadron as well, began to stride back to the kitchen to discuss their adventures in less professional tones.


	33. The Legend of the Great War

33 – THE LEGEND OF THE GREAT WAR

In the kitchen of Green Base, the Greens sat around the table and discussed everything that had happened. Master Chief was there was well, floating around the place jollily. As this was a kind of celebration for the journey they had completed, the table was filled with foodstuffs, from snacks to real food. The Greens started out by going over the course of events, with each person giving their side. They went around the table, one person giving their story at a time, until they came to Oofig. In addition to his part in Lime's journey, Fred Oofig also spoke of his many adventures before his encounter with Lime, back when he would blissfully explore random universes, via his ability to create random portals, and wander around each reality, saying hello to everything he could. It was not too long before he came to the more recent stories, where he had began to see appearances of the Red Army. He described their encampments and outposts, as well as the landscapes of giant jagged black spikes which always seemed to accompany the Reds, spikes that jutted up from the ground and caused every other form of life around them to slowly recede and disappear. The Greens listened intently, particularly Nome.

Nome waited until Oofig had thoroughly described the spike landscapes before standing up and making to leave the room. Upon enquiries as to where he was going, he replied: "I need to get something. Something important." He returned a minute later carrying a book, a physical one that had pages. It looked to be very old, having yellowed and somewhat frayed pages and cover.

"Dude, you have _physical books?_" Kenny asked. "You're oldschool. Everything is electronic now, including literature. Want to read something, just get on the internet. I thought all the physical books were in museums."

Nome sat back down, placing the physical book in the center of the table. "Most, but not all."

Reading the title on the cover, Skope said: "Ancient Myths and Legends of the Galaxy."

"Nome, isn't that a children's book?" Jess asked. "I think I remember being read stuff from that when I was very young. It's just a bunch of ancient creation stories, all bedtime stuff. What's in this that could possibly be important?"

Nome responded by opening up the book and flipping to one particular page. He then oriented the book so that Oofig would have the best view of the page. Upon witnessing the opened part of the book, Oofig suddenly tensed and stared at the page with intense focus.

Kevin got up and walked around to Oofig's side so that he could see the page right side up. "Um, what is it? You look like you're seeing a ghost or something."

By now, most of the other Greens had followed Kevin's actions, coming to stand behind Oofig, so that nearly everyone was now staring at the page together. The place in the book that Nome had opened to showed a landscape of jagged black spikes which stretched up into a blood red sky, like desperate hands reaching futilely for freedom. Some of the Greens gasped when they realized the significance of the page.

"Oofig," Nome asked his team's newest teammate. "Do these spikes look like the ones you witnessed in the other universes?"

Oofig continued to stare at the page for some time in silence, before nodding slowly and hesitantly. "Yes, they look exactly the same. But how…what the hell are these doing in a _children's_ book?"

Nome took back the book and flipped to the beginning of the particular story that picture belonged in. He kept the book facing the others as he did so, allowing them to keep pace with where he was going. The title of the story was _The Legend of the Great War._

"I vaguely remember that story," said Jess. "It's a creation myth. It starts out saying that our whole universe was created by a pantheon of gods collectively called Bungie."

"Odd name for a pantheon," commented Skope.

"It gets odder," Jess continued. "Bungie created lesser deities to watch over and protect our universe. Two of them were called Aeon and Vitian. For many eons, they kept everything peaceful within the universe. But then Bungie, the pantheon whom they both dutifully looked up to, dissolved into a different order, called The Three Hundred and Forty Three, which had other priorities than the universe they had created, and eventually Aeon and Vitian were left alone, to manage the universe by themselves. I don't remember much after that, the story always got too sad for my liking, when it was read to me."

"I believe that I can continue where you left off," said Nome as he shifted his gaze down to the book and began to summarize. "Aeon and Vitian had different ways of coping with the dissolution of Bungie. Aeon decided that it would be best to continue to watch over and protect the universe. But Vitian's reaction was much different…and far more drastic. He was not able to truly cope with Bungie's absence, having become so faithful in them that he could not believe they had truly abandoned him. He distanced himself from Aeon, focusing all of his energies inwards, until he reached the conclusion that the reason Bungie had abandoned the universe was because they had seen it as a failed creation."

"I'm not so sure I like where this is going," said Kevin.

"Indeed, this story does get much worse," Nome admitted. "Vitian renamed himself Amnion, because of the nightmare that he now perceived reality to be, and launched a war against all of human civilization. Aeon fought to protect humanity, eventually becoming the leader of their resistance against Amnion. This conflict did not leave any system untouched. The chaos escalated until the very fabric of the universe became in jeopardy. Entire systems were obliterated, and on the planets that Amnion touched, came a terraforming plague of black spikes that took over all the land."

Nome briefly pointed to the picture he had first shown everyone, then continued reading. "The conflict eventually became so terrible that the fabric of reality itself began to break down. Realizing that this was his last chance to save reality, Aeon tried to talk with Amnion, telling him that it was not a certainty that Bungie had deemed the universe a failure, and that there could have been alternate reasons for their dissolution. But by this point, Amnion was truly insane, his emotions irrevocably twisted by his hatred of all things. He would not listen to reason, and in the end, it came down to one final battle, between Aeon and Amnion."

Kenny made a cough of exclamation. "Dudes, this shit is getting intense!"

"There is only a bit left of the story," said Nome. "The fiercest battle of the war raged as the two of them fought for one last time. The universe trembled with their wrath. Aeon tried to subdue Amnion before reality was altered, but his attempts were futile. The battle caused the death and rebirth of the universe. Humanity began again, but this time, without any deities to watch over them."

Everyone else stared at Nome. "That's not the end, is it?" Skope asked.

"Yeah," Kenny shouted. "I mean, what happened to Aeon and Amnion?"

"The very last paragraph of the story talks about that," said Nome. "During the restarting of the universe, Aeon and Amnion became imprisoned in realities outside of the one they had known, becoming jettisoned from their own universe by the laws of time and space itself. They both reside in prisons of crystal, to this very day." Nome scanned the story one last time. "I believe that is the end. I can find no more text on this story."

The medic looked up from the book to find Master Chief floating right in front of his visor, and staring down directly at the story's text. Before anyone could ask it what it was doing, it began to turn the pages on its own. The gaze of the orb's one eye flitted throughout the entire story, though it seemed to have particular interest in the name Amnion and the prisons of crystal that he and Aeon were said to be imprisoned in.

"Um, Master Chief?" Kevin asked the orb. "Why are you so interested in this?"

Nome was now staring at the orb instead of the book. "I believe it knows something."

"Yes, but what?" Oofig asked.

The orb floated up from the book and then flew out of the room. The stares of the Greens followed it until it disappeared. "Where do you think it's gone?" Kevin asked.

"No idea," said Kenny. He turned to face Nome. "What I'm really wondering is, why is this all so important? A children's book has landscape pictures that Fred recognized. But so what?" He looked around at everyone. "Are you trying to convince me that the Red Army is being led by Amnion? That's kind of a stretch, don't you think?"

"I do not know," said Nome. "But it is worth taking into account the fact that the Red Army has come into existence within the last eight days. In that time, it has come upon technology to cross dimensions, has expanded into a multidimensional empire, and has even managed to construct a gigantic mechanical hand. Even with Vincent's powers, do you honestly believe that he could be responsible for all of that? Not to mention the question of where Vincent got his own powers from."

"Ooookay," said Skope as he nodded along. "So what should we do, then?"

Nome mmmmmmmmed for a second before saying: "I believe it best that we contact the Yellows. As we are in an alliance with them, they have every right to know what we do."

* * *

At Yellow Base, the time for lunch was approaching. Patton didn't normally follow a strict schedule, but he was looking very forward to having more lemonade with the rest of Lemon Squadron. He was heading for the kitchen, thinking about lemonade and related things, when his COM beeped and Clair informed him that the entire Green Team was approaching the base entrance structure in the canyon. With much annoyance, Patton reversed direction. He came to the canyon entrance door and opened it to find every single person he didn't want to see right now, standing expectantly in front of him. "What?" he growled.

Of course, the ever monologue-happy Nome just had to be the first one to open his mouth. "We have made a ponderable discovery that could concern the origins, and even perhaps the fate of, the universe."

Patton gazed at Nome through his visor with livid annoyance. "Oh God, not again. What is it this time, medic? We just got back to this canyon. Can you not wait one single fucking instant before trying to launch us on some other quest?"

"Actually, four hours, two minutes, and twelve seconds have passed since we returned to the canyon. No wait, _fifteen_ seconds now."

"It was a figure of speech, medic."

"I have never encountered such a verbal figure."

"_Medic_…what do you want? Why are you here? Get to the goddamn point…please."

The Greens explained to him that they had found something in a children's picture book which suggested that one of the characters within said children's picture book was leading the Red Army, as a mastermind secretly controlling Vincent. Fred Oofig then supplemented this claim by talking about how he had been strolling along one time in an alternate dimension, just saying hello to everything, when all of a sudden he had come upon a dark evil twisted landscape which matched one of the pictures in the children's picture book.

"Go away," said Patton as he reached out to slam the door in the Green's visors.

"Wait, just hear us out!" shouted Skope.

"I said _go away_," Patton repeated. He was about to close the door, when all of a sudden Master Chief flew through the entrance at full speed. Patton jumped back, reaching for the orb as it floated past, but failing to grab onto it before it floated out of range. "What the hell?" He turned to face the Greens angrily. "Where's it going?"

Skope shrugged. He then mentioned how Master Chief had become very interested in one particular part of the same children's picture book they had all been talking about. Failing to see how this would give the orb reason to infiltrate his base, Patton turned and began to sprint after it. He decided to let the Greens follow him in, since they had more familiarity with Master Chief, and therefore might be able to help him catch it.

They pursued the orb deep into the base. It was elusive, requiring Patton and the Greens to really work as a team. In fact, the rest of the Yellows soon had to be called in as well, the entire base getting caught up in the chase. Several times they lost track of the orb's location. They spread out and wandered around the base, trying to figure out where it had gone. Suddenly, the orb appeared around a corner, and stopped right in front of everyone. They walked towards it as a group, and Master Chief began to move again, leading the Yellows and Greens at a steady pace. The orb took them on a tour of Yellow Base, allowing the Greens to see more of it than the Yellows had ever intended…but oh well, thought Patton, since nothing could be done about it at that point. Finally, the orb completed its journey, stopping in a room in the very depths of Yellow Base.

The door was ten centimeters thick of solid titanium, but the orb somehow lifted it off of its hinges and out of the way as though it were made of styrofoam. Apparently, locked doors meant nothing to Master Chief. The orb floated into the room, and the group followed. This room, as the Yellows knew, was a storage room. It was empty except for a pedestal in the center, which contained a long, green-glowing device shaped sort of like a pillar.

"A Quantum Manipulator," Nome breathed.

The orb floated proudly around the device. This was clearly what it had been looking for in the base, and found, before leading the group to it; which implied that the orb intended to show them something.

Patton strode into the room. "Orb!" he shouted. "Get out of there!" The orb was undeterred. In fact, it was staring directly at the Quantum Manipulator, without moving. Patton was well aware that the orb could alter objects when staring at them. "What are you doing, orb?" he shouted again. "Stop!" He pulled out his shotgun and started to aim it.

Suddenly, the room filled with a brilliant light. Patton jumped backwards, to join the rest of the Yellows and Greens as they watched the room transform. The light was originating from the Quantum Manipulator, which was glowing brightly. The light focused into two regions, both three dimensional, like a hologram. The regions were side by side. The first showed a landscape filled with giant green crystals, the same one they had seen in the vortex on the _Dark Side of the Moon_. The second showed a large room or chamber, with its surface covered with ice. At the center of this chamber was a metal pillar emitting light. Master Chief was still controlling the images from the Quantum Manipulator, and as the group watched, the second image zoomed in to focus on something on the pillar. It was a plaque with several lines of text.

Brian was the first to recognize what the second image was, since he had already been there before. "Oh, I know that place! That's where we found the artifact, in the dimension we connected to from Red Base!"

Everyone else took a moment to read the contents of the plaque's text. "Amnion," Hester breathed. "It can't be…"

For his previous outburst, Patton rounded on Brian. "What do you mean, you know this place?"

Everyone turned to face Brian.

Brian cowered back slightly. He normally really liked attention…but not when everyone was staring at him accusingly. He tried to explain. "This is the alternate dimension where me and Master Chief found the artifact, to put on that device to destroy The Hand." When everyone continued to stare at him, he then explained the subject in more detail, this time bothering to mention exactly how he and Master Chief had gotten to that dimension, by going into Red Base and using its teleporter.

After Brian was finished, Nome asked him: "And you are sure that the crystal shell was already broken by the time you arrived?"

Brian nodded.

"I wonder what the other location represents," said Ryan, pointing at the image of the green crystal landscape.

"I'm not sure," said Clair. "But if the icy location is where Amnion was imprisoned, then maybe the green crystal location is where Aeon was imprisoned. Or is imprisoned."

Master Chief actually nodded when Clair suggested the latter of the two possibilities.

"_Is_ imprisoned, then…" said Nome while he studied the reactions of the orb. "Master Chief…what are you…and exactly how much do you know?"

Hearts took a step closer to the other members of Lemon Squadron. "So, what're all of your takes on this?"

Hester shook her head slowly, thinking. "I'm not normally one to believe a children's picture book." She then motioned to the images of the Quantum Manipulator. "But _this_ evidence is irrefutable."

Patton stared at her. "Are you actually suggesting that the Greens and the _former Blue_…are you suggesting that you think they may be _right?_"

Hester shrugged. "Take a look in front of you and tell me what you see. And no, _of course_ I'm not sure. What I do know, though, is that we need to talk to Command about this ASAP."

Patton nodded. "On that, we _can_ agree."

* * *

The entire group piled into the communications room of Yellow Base, even the Greens, for they had been the ones to first discover this information, and therefore had every right to participate in the discussion of it. Hester keyed in Bradley's frequency, and soon his helmet appeared before them.

Bradley stared when he saw the Greens. "Trying to take over this base, are you?!" Then he noticed Lemon Squadron and the rest of the Yellows standing alongside them. "Oh, never mind! Sorry about that, Greens. But um, Lemon, what's going on?"

"It appears that the Greens have discovered something," said Hester. Over the course of the next fifteen minutes or so, the Greens and Brian explained to Bradley everything concerning The Legend of the Great War, as well as Aeon and Amnion. Then the Yellows told of what had just happened with the Quantum Manipulator. Bradley listed with increasing intent.

When they were done speaking, Bradley said: "This all sounds very interesting, not to mention potentially very important. I'll need you all to give me a few minutes. I'll contact you again after I've spoken with someone." He signed off. The group waited for some moments in an anticipated silence. About five minutes had gone by when Bradley contacted them again. "Hello again, everyone," he greeted. "I'm going to patch you through to someone else who needs to talk to you."

The holographic image of Bradley's helmet was replaced with another, much Greener color of helmet. "Greetings, Lime Squadron!" this new soldier bellowed.

"Grand General!" Skope exclaimed.

Richard Face, the Grand General of the Green Army, nodded his helmet at everyone. "I have very important news for all of you," he stated. "The Lord High Commander General and I have discussed in private the information you have sent to us. We have decided that it would be best for the Quantum Manipulator to be brought to a place of protection where it can be studied in depth. The Lord High Commander General is more than willing to have this honor. However, Yellow Command's science teams do not yet have technology or capability to analyze the Quantum Manipulator as much as we would like."

Hester crossed her arms, suspecting what was coming. "So then, where should we take it?"

The Grand General continued: "Centerpoint City has been studying the properties of other dimensions for several weeks now. We have the technology perform all the necessary experiments on the Quantum Manipulator in order to figure out what it is and how to use it."

Patton scoffed. "My brother has agreed to give the Quantum Manipulator over to you? I don't believe it!"

The console's holographic image was replaced once again with Bradley's helmet. "Believe it," said Bradley. "There is no other way to study the artifact. I wish we could bring it to Yellow Command, but the fact is that we just don't have the equipment or expertise. Sending it to Centerpoint City is the only way to properly study it."

Patton nodded. "Okay, bro. I understand."

The image switched back to the Grand General. "You and the rest of Lime Squadron, as well as the other members in your base, will be making a journey. All of you will need to come, because we may need your help figuring the Quantum Manipulator out, even the Yellows, since Lemon has had past experience with it. Brain will be especially needed, because he the only known soldier able to pick up the device with his own hands."

Nome stepped forward. "Grand General, Centerpoint City has been kept secret in location for its own defense. Do you really think it wise to bring Yellows there? We do not know how long our Army's truce with them will last."

The Grand General nodded. "That is a very good point, Achetatselu—Nome. In addition to the fact that the Yellows have had some experience with the Quantum Manipulator, there is another reason for their arrival as well: the Yellow Army already knows exactly where Centerpoint City is."

The Greens gawked at their Grand General.

"Don't worry," the Grand General laughed. "I can explain. You see, the Purple Army and their Admiral Vorennius have been after Centerpoint City ever since the Battle of Roster Teth three years ago. Now, the Purple Army has regained much of its former strength, and Vorennius has come to this planet. His is a brilliant man, terrifying in his tactical efficiency. Both me and the Lord High Commander General know that it will only be so long before he discovers the location of Centerpoint City, and when he does, he will attack, at which point we must be ready. It is for this reason that I have personally shared the coordinates of Centerpoint City with the Lord High Commander General…so that he can move the orbital position of Yellow Command, relocating the station into geosynchronous orbit directly over Centerpoint City, so that Vorennius will have to get through the Yellows first before he can so much as touch our capitol. In fact, it was just an hour ago that Yellow Command finished its transit."

"So now the location of our city is known to outsiders," said Skope, still in some amount of disbelief.

The Grand General nodded. "Yes. But now we know where their Command is, as well."

Now it was Skope's turn to nod. "Ah, now I see your plan. Neither capitol can attack the other, without expecting retaliation. And with the way they're currently set up, they are actually _defending_ each other. Things are starting to make some sense now."

"Indeed," said the Grand General smugly. "And as a token of our Army's good faith towards the Alliance, I figured it would be a good idea to let the Yellows have a trip to Centerpoint City. The Lord High Commander General agreed."

Bradley's helmet came on console again. "Everyone, you are to travel to Centerpoint City. You should use the teleporter in the communications tower of Green Base. Make sure to bring the Quantum Manipulator with you. It is probably best to have Brian carry it, since he's the only one who can. You will be within the city by nightfall. These orders come from both of us, so everyone, _from both Armies_, is expected. That is all."

The console went dark as both Bradley Patton and Richard Face signed off.

Hearts stretched and began making for the door. "Well, I guess we'd all better get packing. It's not every day I get to travel to the capitol of another Army. Should be interesting."


	34. Tour de Centerpoint City

34 – TOUR DE CENTERPOINT CITY

The Greens and Yellows separated immediately after the meeting with Bradley and the Grand General in the comm room. The Greens returned to their base to pack up, as well as to set up the portal in their comm tower that connected to Centerpoint City. Meanwhile, the Yellows just packed and got ready to head over. Roughly an hour had passed by the time the entire group had reunited outside Green Base's comm tower. The Greens stood in a crowd and watched the Yellows arrive on Mongooses. The automated tape recording of "Spiked Kittens" could be heard in the background as the Greens waited. Master Chief floated in the air above them, watching from an overhead view as the Yellows neared Green Base.

The five vehicles slid to a stop, ending up in a perfect row right in front of Green Team. Another second went by while the Yellows hopped off their vehicles. It was Patton whose feet were on the ground first. Immediately, he began walking towards Nome. "Well, medic, it looks like we're going to explore your Army's capitol city. Are you gonna show us around?" He patted Heart's shoulder, the sniper having come to stand beside him. "Gonna give us all a nice tour? Show us all the places we're not supposed to see, maybe?"

Nome shook his head. "I believe it is the Grand General who will show you all around. Or perhaps more likely, he will have a specially selected team of his own men show you around. I most sincerely doubt that he will allow you into any classified areas he does not intend for you to be in."

Patton had his arms crossed. "Uh-huh…"

Hearts turned back towards the center of the crowd. "C'mon, Pinkie. Let's not give the Greens too hard a time. We are traveling via their courtesy, after all."

"You're right," said Patton as he followed the sniper.

The group focused its attention on the comm tower. Jess had just finished opening the door to it. They were all about to enter when Brian suddenly realized that he had forgotten to bring the Quantum Manipulator. And so, it was another long moment of waiting for everyone else while the former Blue hurried back to Yellow Base on a Mongoose. A few minutes later, Brian radioed Hester, informing her that he had gotten lost in the lower reaches of the base. Clair had to pull up a holographic map of the base with her tacpad, and then the Yellows spent about ten minutes giving Brian directions. After Brain finally found the Quantum Manipulator, he got lost _again _trying to find his way back out. This time it took only five minutes to direct him back to the canyon. Then Brian wandered around some, finding the place where he had parked his Mongoose. After Brian had been gone for a total of twenty minutes, he_ finally_ returned.

"Next time something like this happens, we really need to send someone with him," Clair said.

"You don't say!" Patton growled.

With no further interruptions, the group was now able to go inside. Everyone piled into the comm tower, which was a complicated measure, because the room was not very spacious. Once everyone was inside, Jess nudged herself through the others and made it to the central control console, where she dialed up Green Command.

"Hello, this is Green Command," said a voice on the other end. "How may I assist you's. Or y'all. Or whatever.

Jess said into the transceiver: "This is Lime and Lemon Squadrons, waiting at the base in sector 18-Alpha."

The sound of key tapping could be heard from the other end of the line. "18-Alpha, 18-Alpha. Hang on, I'm gonna have to y'all on hold." The music had just barely started playing when the person on the other end yanked up his line and shouted into it: "Oh shit, you guys have an appointment with the Grand Fucking General! So sorry I put you on hold, I had no idea! Yeah, I'm setting up the teleporter link right now. There it goes."

At the end of the room opposite the door, a hidden compartment slid down to reveal a teleporter node, freshly activated and green glowing. "Thank you…person," Jess said into the transceiver before ending the transmission.

Hester spoke up. "Okay people, does everyone have everything? We can't afford to have to come back here because someone forgot something." She looked around the group closely. When no one spoke up, she said: "All right, let's get this trip started."

Single file, everyone stepped into the teleporter. The group reappeared in an area surrounded by forest. On either side, rocky walls rose up to form a ravine. A river flowed at the side, slowly meandering down the landscape.

"Hey, this doesn't look like a city," said Ryan.

"That's because we aren't there yet," said Skope. He pointed downstream. "It's that way." The group walked a few hundred meters. They were now at a point where the ground dropped off, revealing a sea of water, and far out into that sea sat a great durasteel pedestal, its diameter several times longer than the canyon the group had just come from. Tall buildings stretched out of the top of the pedestal. It sat in the middle of its lake as though it was using the lake as a giant moat. Radiating out from the city were monorail paths that connected the city to all of the lands across the moat. "_That's_ Centerpoint City," Skope stated.

"Yup," said Jess. "It totally is."

The Yellows were gaping.

"Oh…my…God…" said Ryan. "This is your capitol. It totally beats the crap out of Yellow Command! I'd take something like this over a space station any day."

"Hey, hey guys!" exclaimed a high voice off to the group's side. Brian came running up to them. "I found something." He held out some kind of doll. It appeared to be a chibi build of a Green soldier. Brian waved it around, moving at annoyingly close to Clair's visor. "I found it in one of those crates over there!" He pointed to some popped open storage crates behind the group.

Clair reached out and grabbed Brian's arm. "Brian," she said softly as she took the doll from him. "That's not what's important right now." She pointed out to Centerpoint City.

Brian followed the direction of her finger, eventually discovering the spectacle. "Oooooooh! That's pretty!"

The Greens led the Yellows to a monorail terminal stationed at the bare edge of the cliff. A car was waiting for them there. The message LEMON/LIME SQUADRONS flashed on its display board. The group hopped on board, the doors closed, and the car began its journey across the sea, towards the city.

"So your guys' capitol is surrounded by a huge moat," remarked Deryn as she stared out one of the windows. "That's cool."

Nome saw fit to give a short monologue explaining that the reason the city had a moat was so that, should the enemy gain teleporter access to this region, they would still have distance to fight through in order to reach the city. There were no teleporter destinations at the city itself, only around it, thus giving another level of safety to the city and its citizens.

"Makes sense," said Patton. "And…clever. Just a bit."

This time, the monorail was taking the group on a slightly different path then it had gone on during the Green's last trip to the city. Instead of taking them into the heart of the city, this car was heading towards something on the outskirts of the city: a bridge or pinnacle of construct that jutted out from the city like an appendage of some kind. As the car came closer, they could see that the bridge was more like an urban plaza, with walkways all along it that connected different outlets, where soldiers in green strutted to and fro. The monorail rode up to the outer hull of the bridge and sailed into a terminal inside its walls. The group hopped out just as they had hopped in before.

The monorail had dropped them off on the lowest level of the bridge plaza. An escort waiting in the lobby led the group up a rather long flight of stairs, taking them to the main level. Ahead was a road with several outlets along the side. Soldiers in green were crowding the large corridor, passing along on their various matters of business. The escort led the group up a large flight of stairs off to the side of the street's entrance. From there, the path took a left, to a small skybridge that stretched over the street the group had just been on. The bridge led into the tallest structure on the plaza: it dominated the upper section of the plaza, with the front tip of it stretching out long enough to side off the street below the group. At the very end of the structure's front was a waterfall that existed on the main level and was ceilinged by the higher levels of the building. Reaching the other end of the skybridge, the group entered the building and took an immediate left. Ahead of them, a large veranda opened up to show a nice view of the rest of the plaza, down below on the main level. Standing with his back to them, his arm raised to his helmet's chin in a gesture of deep thought, was a Green soldier with armor so voluminous and spiffed up that it reminded everyone of a puffer fish.

"Grand General," the escort called out. "The party you were expecting has arrived."

The Grand General turned to face Lemon and Lime Squadrons. "Ah, you've come. Wonderful. You brought the Quantum Manipulator, I trust?"

Brian held out his palm, upon which the device appeared for a second, before vanishing back into his armor with a swirl of light and an electronic hum.

"This is quite the city," said Amber. "Very impressive."

"But of course it is," the Grand General bellowed. "Find me a capitol city that isn't impressive, there's a challenge for you. Ah, but I forget my pleasantries. Let me show you all around." It was now the Grand General's turn to serve as escort. He showed all of them out of the central building and took them down to the main level, where they began to walk the streets. Though the Grand General appeared to be leading the group by himself, the Greens already knew from their last trip to the city that the Grand General's Elite Guard was heavily monitoring everything that happened, while somehow staying completely hidden. The Grand General led the group through the plaza. The streets had a subtle downward slant to them, creating the sloped form of the bridge plaza that the Greens and Yellows had observed from afar, while on the monorail. Nearing the end of the plaza, the group came to a double door leading off of the bridge.

From there, they were led through a network of corridors. On the group's left side was a long window which stretched the length of the corridor and looked out upon the landscape surrounding the city. The corridor steadily curved as the group traversed it, and as they moved, they could see out the window a panoramic view of the moat of sea surrounding the city, as well as well as the natural structures beyond the water. The corridor went on and on. Kenny eventually asked the Grand General exactly how far the corridor lasted for, and the Green Army's leader explained that he was taking them a full ninety degrees around the city's circumference, to a lab and factory chamber on the city's south facing side. Observing the sight out the window again, the group noticed that the forested cliffs that had skirted the sea to the east (the direction they had entered the city from) and was slowly changing into grass and what looked like agricultural land. As the corridor curved and led the group closer and closer to the southern edge of the city, the sight of the lands on the other side of the moat became filled with grassland, as well as large white structures, which the Grand General soon explained were biomass processing facilities, used to turn the farmed goods into foodstuffs for the city and its nearby outposts. In the background of this could be seen a space elevator which was used to carry a portion those foodstuffs to ships in very low orbit.

After perhaps ten minutes of walking, the group finally came to the chamber the Grand General had mentioned: the doors opened to reveal a huge space, perhaps the same size as the fighter bay on the _Dark Side of the Moon,_ which had its southern wall absent, so that the room looked out onto the same panorama that the Greens and Yellows had been admiring already. The purpose of the room appeared to be a factory, because large white pillars stretched up from the ground to the ceiling, where mechanical arms could be seen moving around far above the group. The lowest level was actually comprised of dirt. The Grand General briefly monologued to explain that Centerpoint City had been built on top of a natural island shaped like a giant stump. Most of the surface was now covered by manmade structures. However, certain parts of the island, such as this lab factory, were under remodeling, and so had no manmade floor. He then motioned over to a row of several manmade structures, of the same smooth white coloring as the pillars, which he explained were lab stations. They had finally reached where they were intended to take the Quantum Manipulator, so that it could be researched.

The group walked over the bare dirt ground. They passed a large slab of stone that rose from the ground at an angle, forming a ramp of rock. Ryan made a note to test its use for vehicle launching at a later time. The Grand General led the group on a turn in direction at this point, taking them to the white lab structures off to their right. They entered a street between two of these buildings, upon which the group took another turn to enter the structure on their right. Then it was up another series of ramps (Centerpoint City seemed to have an endless supply of inclines), whereupon the group reached the uppermost floor of the structure.

The Grand General nodded over to some lab hands, and they quickly set up a pedestal from some of the parts lying around the place still waiting to be used. Then the Grand General motioned to Brian. "If you would."

The former Blue walked over to the pedestal. There was a flash of swirling light around his armor, and suddenly the Quantum Manipulator was in his hands. He set the odd device gingerly on the pedestal, but as soon as he let go, it suddenly started to shimmer as though it were a caught in a heat wave.

"It's decohering!" one of the scientists shouted. Two more scientists rushed to the computer console on the west side of the room, the direction the Greens and Yellows had entered from. Both scientists tapped madly at the keys. Meanwhile, the Quantum Manipulator was shimmering violently: it seemed to be phasing in and out of existence. "We need to drop an entanglement barrier over it!" one of the scientists at the console exclaimed.

"We don't have the means!" shouted another. "The device doesn't have the same quantum frequency of this universe!"

The Grand General rushed to the console, peeking over either scientist's shoulder. "What is going wrong?"

"I'm wondering the same thing," Patton bellowed. "Enough nerd speak. What the fuck is going on?"

"Have you not been listening?" Nome asked the Yellow. "The situation is perfectly simple: the Quantum Manipulator is starting to phase out of the spatial plane of our universe because it does not have the same quantum frequency as our own space-time continuum."

"You do physics problems in your dreams as well as in real life, don't you, medic?" Patton retorted back at the Green.

"I do, but I hardly see how that is immediately relevant," Nome responded. He jolted suddenly. "Ah, of course! Brian, I need you to make physical contact with the Quantum Manipulator. Do it quickly!"

Brian looked back and forth between Nome and the Quantum Manipulator in confusion. "Physical contact? What, you mean I have to take off my armor and my clothes and—ewww, no I'm not doing that!"

Nome just stared at Brian. "_What_…exactly what do you think 'physical contact' means, Private Brian? In simplest terms, I need you to touch the Quantum Manipulator. You do not need to take off your armor. You do not need to take off your clothes. How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Oh!" Brian shouted. "Just touch it. Okay, then! I got a little confused, see, because Ryan showed me this romance movie a few days ago which used the term 'physical contact', and—"

Ryan interrupted: "Um, that wasn't actually a romance movie."

"Oh my God," Patton grumbled. "Hobar, did you really show Brian porn? And while we're on that subject, where did you get porn? It was against regulations to keep it in base, last I checked."

"I don't mean to interrupt the polite conversation you all are having," the Grand General bellowed from the computer console. "But someone needs to do something now, or we could lose the Quantum Manipulator!"

"Right!" Brian exclaimed. He reached out with his right gauntlet, holding onto the Quantum Manipulator with his fingers. Immediately, the device stopped going ballistic, instead simmering back down to its normal state, eventually becoming completely translucent again.

"That's it!" shouted one of the scientists at the computer console. "The Quantum Manipulator has stabilized. Lock it down with the entanglement barrier, now!" At the pedestal, an electronic humming could be heard. For the briefest of instants, a bright blue colored staticy flash surrounded the Quantum Manipulator. Then the base of the pedestal lit up with the same color. "Okay Brian, you can let go now," said the same scientist.

Brian complied, and this time, the Quantum Manipulator stayed normal looking when he released his gauntlet. "Well, that was close," said the Grand General with an err of relief. "Is everything set, then?"

"It is," said the second scientist at the console. "The Quantum Manipulator is secure."

"So now what?" Hester asked the Grand General. "Are we done?"

The Grand General crossed his arms. "Well, we have accomplished the main objective, to get the Quantum Manipulator to this city. We will of course need Brian to stick around, should the device need to be transported again. But as for the rest of you, I guess you should just stick around. Explore the city, see the sights. The Lord High Commander General didn't give many specifics on what you were all supposed to do after getting the Quantum Manipulator here, only that he wanted you all to safeguard it."

"Sounds nice," said Wren. She put her arm on Hester's shoulder. "Well, c'mon, sis. Let's go explore another Army's capitol city." The two of them turned to leave.

"Oh, that reminds me," said the Grand General. "You all need to know where your quarters in the city are." He tapped a few buttons on his tacpad, and soon everyone else's HUDs were updated with the coordinates of the building they would be sleeping in, a residential suite near the center of the city.

Clair mentioned quietly to Patton: "Now that the Quantum Manipulator is here, I wonder how long it will stay in the Green Army's possession."

"Who knows," said Patton. "I think it depends on how long it takes the enemy to find out that the Quantum Manipulator is here, in this city. And when that time comes, I've no idea what will come of it. This damn war has gotten so much more complicated in the recent past. I don't normally do too much thinking about what might be on the horizon, it only ever seems to stress me out, just thinking about it."

"A storm is coming," they heard Skope call out from across the room. They bothered to look back at the view of the countryside beyond the moat of the city, and sure enough, dark storm clouds had gathered on the furthest reaches of the sky. They seemed to be heading for the city.

"I hope that's not an omen," said Clair.

"I'm an atheist," laughed Patton. "I don't believe in omens."


	35. The Two Snipers

35 – THE TWO SNIPERS

Once the scientists of the lab factory had determined for a certainty that the Quantum Manipulator was entirely secure upon its pedestal, Lemon Squadron and Lime Squadron were free to explore Centerpoint City. They all fanned out, everyone splitting into groups, and each group decided to go off in a different direction. Hearts, Patton, Inez, Hester and Wren (Lime Squadron) went towards the center of the city, 'to see the city's most important bits', according to Hearts. Nome, Skope, and Kevin went to the suite that would serve as their quarters, because they had already seen much of the city on a previous visit, several days ago. They just wanted to set up their stuff so that they wouldn't have to do it later. The third and final group was made up of Amber, Clair, Ryan, Jess, Mr. Boom, and Brian. They decided to go to the nearest food court to find something to eat.

The Grand General had informed Lemon Squadron that the city's capitol district was currently under repair and renovation because of an attempted siege that the Orange Army had made there not too long ago. However, the fact that the Grand General continued to insist that there was nothing for Lemon to see in that area only further encouraged Lemon to investigate it for themselves. As Lemon began driving, they came to realize that Centerpoint City was very much like any normal crowded big city. Streets were usually at least five lanes wide, traffic jams were everywhere, and all the other drivers seemed to have as much patience as a grizzly bear that had been poked a dozen too many times; road rage was the norm. It took far longer than it should have, perhaps almost twenty minutes instead of five, but Lemon eventually made it to the very center of Centerpoint City, the Capitol District. "Hm, that's odd," said Tom as they pulled up.

The capitol district had become a construction site, at least in large part. A multi-story tower, only at the first steps of its implementation, existed in a steel skeleton. Surrounding the tower was a dirt field, on the other end of which stretched a crane arm which held a massive piece of stone, which was long and angled so that it looked like a ramp. The dirt field was surrounded by street and city buildings (which were completed). Some of the city buildings looked damaged, and one looked as though a VTOL had crashed into it, because there was a huge dent which showed through several of its floors. Amidst the entire site was an army of construction workers who were all lounging around the place on plastic benches and tables at lunch break, which did not bode the area well for being a place of utmost importance and secrecy for the entire Green Army.

"Well this sucks," commented Patton.

"If this is where classified information is kept, then it's _really_ well concealed," said Wren.

"Should we bother asking around, do you think?" Hearts asked.

Hester shook her head. "There's nothing to be found here. The Grand General meant everything he said. The Capitol District was attacked recently and is under construction."

Tom shrugged. "I guess sometimes people don't try to dissuade you because there's something to hide, they dissuade you because the truth really is this boring."

"I never imagined that the Greens would be so adept at keeping their word," Patton admitted.

"Where to now then, guys?" Wren asked.

"I dunno," said Hearts. "Let's just drive around more, see the sights."

With no one in disagreement, Lemon turned their vehicles and gunned their engines to do just that.

* * *

Lemon reconvened with the group that had gone to the food court. They were all back together again except for Nome, Skope, and Kevin, who were still setting up their quarters in the party's suite. It turned out that while Lemon had been away, the group at the food court hadn't done much except to just eat. So then it was Lemon's turn to have a bit of food. During Lemon's meal, the party discussed exactly where they should try to visit in the city. The subject was brought up that, though the city did have landmarks, they were not particularly impressive: being the central base for an entire Army, the city was mostly administrative in purpose, and as a consequence of this nearly all of the buildings were office buildings (aside from resource and maintenance structures). This was the subject of much discussion, because the group ended up having a very difficult time deciding where to go. Much fist-pounding on the table ensued, as well as some minute cursing, because this was really kind of a letdown for some of the group. Then Clair brought up that Nome, Skope, and Kevin were setting up their quarters at the party's suite, and the group decided to leave so that they could do the same, as they still hadn't come up with any better ideas.

They arrived at the suite about fifteen minutes later. Nome, Skope, and Kevin had of course already set up their quarters. Everyone had already been designated a room when the suite was first booked, so there was no fighting over the remaining rooms. Instead, it was simply a task of everyone setting up their stuff, of which there wasn't much, because it was standard procedure for both Green and Yellow soldiers to travel light when on missions.

The people who had the most to put away were Ryan, Kenny, and Mr. Boom. Being weapons specialists, they of course had the most equipment to lug around. The rooms of the suite were not exactly designed to hold heavy weaponry, as was demonstrated by the acoustics. Kenny was confronted in his own room by Jess, when she heard from his room, through the wall, what she had thought to be an explosion. After some arguing and searching around, they eventually discovered that the way sound traveled through the walls of the suite rooms was such that any loud THUNK was magnified as it spread out to the other rooms, sounding much more powerful than it actually was.

This revelation gave Kenny the idea of lifting up and then dropping down his rocket launcher repeatedly, over and over again. His theory about annoyance was proven when Skope barged into his room, wondering what the fuck was going on, and if he had just overheard some kind of gunfight in Kenny's room. An awkward conversation followed, during which Kenny was forced to admit to Skope his ingenious plan, and Skope stated that if Kenny ever tried that again, he would use Centerpoint City's launch facility to send the rocket launcher into high orbit. As Skope stormed out of the room, Kenny decided that perhaps it was best not to try the rocket launcher/acoustics plan again.

* * *

After everyone had set up their stuff, Lemon Squadron decided to head back to the lab facility containing the Quantum Manipulator, while Kenny, Jess, Ryan, Clair, Kevin, Brian, and Mr. Boom headed out to a buffet they had looked up on a website, that was supposed to be somewhere in the city. After they left, the only two people still in the suite were Skope and Amber. By this point, it was about 1600 hours, and the sun was slowly sinking towards the western horizon. The sight outside the city was filled with colors of orange and purple, reflected from the sky off of the many glass surfaces of the city's structures.

Amber wandered out to the common room to find Skope sitting on one of the couches, still in his armor, reading a Star Wars novel. The Green looked up as Amber stepped closer. "Oh, hi."

Amber nodded in response, then took a spot beside him on the couch. They looked at each other for a moment, then Skope went back to reading. "I'm sorry," Skope heard from his side.

He looked at Amber. "What?"

"I said I'm sorry."

"About what?" Skope asked.

"Sniping you in the ass."

"Oh that." Skope shrugged. "It's in the past. Don't worry about it."

Amber continued: "It's just that…I haven't gotten a chance to apologize to you until now. And since our Armies are in a truce now, and we're even in the same squadron…well, I just felt it necessary, is all."

Skope shook his helemt. "You really didn't need to. You made up for it when you and Clair came to rescue me from Vincent when we were at the Red Fortress. You saved my life." He chuckled subtlety. "I should be thanking you."

Now it was Amber's turn to shake her helmet. "Nonsense. I made up for sniping you in the ass when I saved you. I think that makes us even."

Skope thought it over for a moment. "Yeah, maybe so."

There was silence for a couple of minutes, with Skope reading, and Amber just sitting and thinking. The silence was broken again when Amber said: "The moment after I had rescued you, and we were running through the city of the Red Fortress, with Vincent and probably at least fifty Red Soldiers chasing us…I actually kind of enjoyed that, y'know?"

"Well that was a pretty exciting moment," Skope responded.

"That's not what I mean."

"Oh. Well then, what do you mean?"

"I mean that…I enjoyed running like hell with you."

Skope shrugged. "Aside from the being in mortal danger part, yeah, that was actually kinda fun. I remember when we rounded that corner and saw the rest of Lime Squadron, and then you shouted _'Run for your fucking lives'_ louder than I'd ever heard you say anything before."

Amber chuckled. "Oh yeah, I remember. I must've been on a crazy amount of adrenaline. It's not like me to just shout out like that."

They sat in a few more moments of silence before Amber said: "After the battle at Red Base six days ago, when you and your team were first teleported to the alternate universe, and everyone here thought that you had died…we actually held a funeral for all of you, did you know that?"

Skope gave Amber a curious look. "Seriously?"

Amber nodded. "Yeah. Patton's idea, too. Hard to believe, I know. But after my team first met yours…I think it kind of rubbed off on Patton. He warmed up to you a little bit, privately, not openly. I mean, he actually thought you guys deserved a funeral, even though you're from a different Army, which I think really says something."

"I didn't know it was possible for Patton to warm up," said Skope. "And I had no idea that you guys threw a funeral for us. I would thank you…but thanking someone for hosting my own funeral…I dunno. It just doesn't seem quite right somehow."

Amber shrugged. "Well…the idea for your funeral…it wasn't _entirely _Patton's. I kind of…planted the seed, a bit."

"You did what?" Skope asked.

"I didn't mean to give Patton the idea for the funeral," said Amber. "I kind of just mentioned the possibility to him in passing, and it seemed to catch on."

Skope looked directly at her. "But that would mean that my team rubbed off on you as well."

"One of you did, at least."

"What are you saying, Amber?"

Amber looked away from him, directing her gaze off to the side. "I uh…I dunno."

Another long silence followed. Outside, the sky grew ever darker, the light of the sun being replaced by a nebula of city lights.

It was some time before Skope decided to say: "I didn't think I'd ever bring this up, but since we seem to be on a very similar subject…ah, fuck it."

Amber turned and looked at Skope directly in the visor. "What?

"Well, when my team was first sent into the alternate universe, I think by that point you'd kind of rubbed off on my as well. Not a lot. But every several moments or so, I'd catch myself thinking 'God, if only I had another sniper to watch my back'. I mean, there was an awful lot of crazy shit that happened to my team in the alternate universe. We got caught in the middle of a clan fight, then participated in this weird-ass game of hockey, and then got captured by Reds. There was just so much chaos…I would've been really happy to see you then."

"And I would've been happy to see you," said Amber slowly. "Deep down…I always look forward to seeing you…just a bit."

Skope leaned closer to Amber. "And ever since I've seen you…I've always been looking forward to seeing you. And not just because you're another sniper. Immediately after you sniped me, I was angry, of course. But not now. I've put that part of my past behind me. We're so much more than that now."

"I've always wondered what you look like under your helmet, Skope," said Amber with both cautiousness and curiosity.

"And I've kinda wondered what you look like under yours."

Ever so gently, Amber reached up and applied pressure with her hands to the release buttons. There was a subtle hiss, and then she lifted her helmet off. Long blond hair fell down over her shoulders. She had a long and straight mouth, blue eyes, and a short nose, over butter-yellow skin on a tall and thin face. It was every bit like Skope had imagined her to look.

Now it was Skope's turn to take off his helmet. A few clicks and a light hiss later, his face was plain to see. Long brown bangs, ending in sharp peaks, fell down past subtly slanted eyes. He had a very small mouth, which was placed directly under a short stubby nose. In contrast to the creaminess of Amber's skin, Skope's skin was of a paler color, not pure white, but more like a very light tan.

"You look nice," said Amber.

"So do you," said Skope.

"Sniperbutt," said Amber.

And then, like a triggered reaction, they both shot out with their arms and embraced, each bringing the other's face to their own, mouths open. Skope had never kissed someone before, but he got his experience in the next moment. He felt his heart racing as the two of them snogged. But it wasn't unpleasant. It was blissful. He had never felt so alive before. He just wanted that moment to last forever, with his heart racing, and his lips pressed against hers. Both he and Amber were panting heavily. It was shortly after that second when Amber suddenly released and shoved herself away from him. "Ohmygod, what _the fuck_ are we doing?"

"Kissing?" Skope asked as he wiped his mouth.

"I can't believe we just…" Amber started. "That was _totally _unprofessional!"

Skope nodded. "On that I think we can agree."

"I had no idea I really felt that way towards you," Amber stammered. She then began to recompose herself, sitting upright and straight. "We should, um, forget this ever happened. Never speak of it."

"Good idea," said Skope. "For the best." Then both of them looked towards the doorway to the common room, and saw Ryan standing in the entrance, his visor gawking at them. The suitcase he was holding in his right gauntlet fell to the floor as he looked at the two snipers in stunned amazement.

An awkward stillness filled the room.

Almost as a reflex, Skope shoved his helmet back onto his head. Unsurprisingly, this did not deter Ryan from his stare. After perhaps a minute, the Yellow weapons specialist cleared his throat and stammered: "I-um…I forgot something. Had to come back. I just need to go to my quarters. So how about I...uh, just squeeze past you." He began inching along the wall, even though Skope and Amber were at least ten meters away from him. The gaze paths of the three of them were unwavering as Ryan slowly moved.

Ryan had nearly inched to the entrance to his hallway when Amber exclaimed: "He's going to tell everyone," at which point Skope shot up from the couch and lunged after Ryan. Loud hurried footsteps thundered away into the distance as the sniper chased the weapons specialist down the hallway. Meanwhile, Amber continued to sit in silence on the couch, still not entirely willing to believe that what had happened had really just happened.

It was roughly a minute later when Skope walked slowly back into the common room, in kind of a slouch. "I couldn't stop him in time," the Green explained to Amber. "He used his tacpad to send the message out. Everyone knows now." He then walked up to the couch and sat down next to Amber, in the same space he had been sitting during their kiss. Another five minutes went by as the two of them sat in silence, thinking their own thoughts.

"Fucking dammit," said Amber.


	36. Vengeance At Hand

36 – VENGEANCE AT HAND

Sunlight from the solar system's star filtered in through the windows of the command dome of the _Avant Garde_, the paths of light traveling gracefully down to the central console and hitting holographic planes, causing the planes to change color slightly in select places. Staring at the planes, Hathrow Vorennius studied the tactical feeds of Lemon Squadron's escape from the _Avant Garde_. His plans for dealing with the Yellows had backfired considerably: he had lost the Quantum Manipulator, lost several dozen troops who had stood in Lemon's way, and lost at least two dozen more when the dropship Lemon had hijacked had rammed itself into the hanger door, and the vacuum of space had sucked out every soldier in the bay. However, the part that really troubled the Admiral was the fact that he couldn't figure out exactly what he'd done wrong. All the pieces had been in place. Lemon had been lured to the _Avant Garde_ and herded into a room filled with a dozen Mantis Walkers. Had Lemon somehow managed to defeat all of them, Vorennius could have sent in more, until Lemon was eventually felled.

But something had happened which he had not intended: Lemon had hijacked a Mantis and then used its clearance codes to activate a lift out of the room. Vorennius had never imagined that a Mantis was hijackable. Lemon had taught the _Avant Garde's_ development teams a lesson in design flaws: the canopy door needed to be reinforced so that it could not be yanked open with a robotic arm. That flaw had cost him his initial plan in dealing with Lemon.

After Lemon had broken out of the trap room, Vorennius had decided to imprison them in a section of hallway on a higher level of the ship. Yet this, as well, they had escaped. For prior to the springing of the trap, Lemon had freed a prisoner named Travis Chamaelon, whom Vorennius had sent to the brig only hours ago, and allowed the Purple to become an accomplice. So when Lemon was trapped in that section of hallway, they had used Chamaelon's id clearance to access a side door…which had just happened to enter into the Artifact Archives. Another team had been sent after them, and another gunfight ensued, which Lemon of course won. Then they had found the Quantum Manipulator, and one of them had picked it up…somehow, even though it was non-coherent with the universe.

But Vorennius had had one final plan up his armor cuff: he had used one of the Quantum Manipulator's abilities to set a power drain to take effect in Lemon's armors. At the same time, he had flooded the Artifact Archives with Mantises. Victory had seemed assured. But then, for a third time, Lemon had escaped. Despite being weakened by the power drain, they had carried each other, and sprinted to the best of their ability, somehow managing to outrun the Mantises. Following this had been the scene in the hanger, where Lemon had escaped with both the Purple and the Quantum Manipulator on the dropship.

Vorennius could understand how none of it had happened.

Everything had been in place. Yet time and time again, Lemon had thwarted him. And the only constant that the Admiral could spot in every single situation, the one thing Lemon had used…was luck. Fortune had favored them. No matter what had been placed in their way, there had always been one desperate avenue that Lemon had been able to exploit in order to escape. Vorennius could find no singular set of strategies used throughout Lemon's journey on the ship. They had always just reacted to what had been put in their way. The Admiral began to think about what kind of training might lend itself to this "luckiness". Was it something that could be taught, or was it something that just happened? Everything Vorennius had planned was based on predictions of future events. If one action was performed, another action would spring as a consequence, which would lead to necessary countermeasures and so forth. But what if it was possible to develop a soldier that could adapt and deal with any matter of countermeasures? A soldier whose operating procedure was based upon improvisation instead of foresight? Such a soldier would be unlike everything else in the Purple Army. But if the Purple Army could reproduce its own version of Lemon Squadron, then Vorennius could have himself an army unlike anything in the war.

A tremendous flash of light burst into existence, causing the Admiral's visor to black out for a second as it automatically readjusted its display settings. Though he could not see, Vorennius stepped back, knowing that there was nothing to trip over behind him. His visor finally recalibrated and reactivated. Looking around quickly, Vorennius could see that the flash had ended. But floating in the place where it had originated was a most familiar figure: a fusion coil.

The coil floated slowly towards the Admiral, its core glowing an angry red. "Admiral!" it shouted. "Where was my Quantum Manipulator when I needed it? The Hand is destroyed. If I had had the manipulator than I could have ended the universe. But no, because you still hadn't given it to me!"

"Vincent," Vorennius greeted. "Yes, I was informed of the plight of your doomsday device. How very unfortunate." In contrast to his words, his voice lended no amount of sympathy.

"Where is my Manipulator?" Vincent hissed. "I know that you have it. The entire planet knows of your campaign against the Orange Army, and your siege of their capitol city. They were forced to give it to you, which explains why you let Strongeheim stand. The Manipulator is in your possession. So give it to me."

Vorennius had known that this moment was coming, ever since Lemon Squadron. "I am afraid that isn't possible."

"WHAT?" Vincent shouted.

"You see, I did have the Quantum Manipulator, but it has been taken from me. By the Yellow Army."

Vincent shuddered, his core light flickering. "You _promised_ it to me!"

"And you promised me the location of Centerpoint City."

Vincent laughed maniacally. "How can you expect me to uphold my end of the bargain when you have _lost_ your end?"

"Because the Yellows have joined with Lime Squadron and taken the Quantum Manipulator to Centerpoint City, for safekeeping."

"How can you know this, and yet still be ignorant of Centerponit City's location?" Vincent demanded.

"I have had Yellow Base bugged for some days now. The defector, Travis Chamealon, installed listening devices in that base when he first arrived there, and has not yet bothered to remove them. But because it is a Yellow base, it does not contain information on the Green Army's capitol. I have only heard the city's name referenced."

"So you know where the Manipulator is, and you don't know where it is," Vincent stated.

"That is correct."

"But you still can't hold up your end of the bargain!"

Vorennius gave an exhale, a low chuckle. "Allow me to state things another way. Your end of the bargain is about Centerpoint City. And my end of the bargain is _in_ Centerpoint City."

"You want us to attack the city together, don't you?"

Vorennius nodded. "For you to get your Manipulator, the city must be besieged one way or another."

Vincent glowered glowingly at the Admiral. "But I'm still thinking about the fact that you had the Manipulator but didn't give it to me. Do you really think me so gullible that you can play with our alliance like a harp?"

Vorennius shook his helmet. "I am not playing you, Vincent. Because of these developments, our objectives are now intertwined."

"Intertwined, because you set it up that way, Vorennius!" Vincent shot back. "You wanted me to end up in just this situation, so that I would have no choice but to work with you!"

Actually, this was not true. Vorennius _had_ been intending to give Vincent the Quantum Manipulator. But then it had been stolen and taken to Centerponit City, and this forced alliance had ended up as the Admiral's backup plan. "We can still both get exactly what we want," the Admiral said slowly and carefully.

"No I can't," said Vincent. "The Hand has been damaged to the point where it can no longer alter the fabric of space-time. The Quantum Manipulator is useless to me now. All my plans…my wonderful plans…THEY HAVE ENDED!"

"Then why have you come here?" asked Vorennius.

"Because you have betrayed me," the fusion coil hissed. "Your scheming has cost me everything."

"My scheming has cost you nothing," the Admiral countered. "The failures you speak of are your own and no other's. I did not have anything to do with Lime Squadron's multiple escapes from captivity. I did not allow The Hand to be shot at with the artifact device. Those mistakes were both your own Army's responsibility."

"You kept the Quantum Manipulator from me!" the fusion coil protested.

"I did not have a chance to get it to you."

"That is your excuse!" Vincent roared.

"You are not listening to reason," Vorennius said calmly. "We have an alliance. There is no need for you to make an enemy of me. There are other ways of exacting your revenge. Our two Armies can have dominion over all other civilizations. Give me the location of Centerpoint City, and our conquest can begin with the ending of the Green Army. Once they are gone, the Yellows will be left vulnerable at the loss of their own alliance, and we can strike at them—"

"I want to destroy this universe, not rule it!" exclaimed Vincent as he began to circle around Vorennius, his lights suddenly beginning to glow much brighter. "But that plan is gone now. I will never make the mistake of siding with you again."

Vorennius crossed his arms and stared at the fusion coil with his visor as it circled him. "You are being foolish."

Vincent let out a maniacal laugh. "Am I? You're one to talk, _Admiral._ You think you're so different from the Greens. But both your Army and the Green Army are cowards. You hide in your capitol ship, while the Greens hide under Yellow Command like a hermit under a rock."

Vorennius suddenly sensed an opportunity. "The Greens do what, again?"

Vincent laughed again, his cackle reverberating all around the dome. "Not so bright when you're being insulted, are you? I said that the Greens hide just like you Purples do. They use Yellow Command like a shield, and you use your reclusiveness as a shield."

Vorennius sharply turned and strode back over to the holographic console in the center of the dome. He hit a few buttons, and a holographic representation of XBOXL1V sprang up.

"What do you think you're doing, Admiral?" Vincent shouted at him. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Vorennius ignored the fusion coil, instead focusing all of his energies on the hologram. _Can I have found it at last? _he wondered silently. He isolated the holoscreen over the location of Yellow Command, focusing the program on the station's latitude and longitude relative to the planet's surface. As it so happened, the station was in geosynchronous orbit, which lended credence to his theory. Acting on a whim, he had the computer scan for electromagnetic signatures on the surface, directly under Yellow Command. To the Admiral's triumph, the area he selected lit up like a Christmas tree: the revelation of an electromagnetic shield, exactly of the size needed to protect a large city from radar. Zooming far inwards, the Admiral discovered a great lake shaped like a thick ring. Within the ring, at the center of this lake, was a durasteel pedestal upon which rested a layer a manmade structures.

At long last, Vorennius' search was over.

"I demand to know what you are doing, Admiral!" Vincent shouted from the other side of the console.

"The Greens decided to set Yellow Command in geosynchronous orbit above their capitol city," said the Admiral, more on audible thought to himself than to the fusion coil. "They thought that move would make them safer, when instead it has proved to be their fatal mistake. Hiding behind Yellow Command like a shield: a tactic both clever and clumsy at the same time."

It was at about this moment when Vincent began to catch onto his own mistake. "Oh fuck, I told you…I told you…"

"You told me enough to allow me to collect my end of our little bargain," said Vorennius smugly, now bothering to turn his visor back in Vincent's direction.

"Even though I haven't collected on mine," Vincent protested.

"Spare me your ridicule," Vorennius countered, suddenly becoming more domineering in tone. "In order to collect the Quantum Manipulator for you, I have launched a campaign against another Army and beaten them to within an inch of their existence. That is what I did to honor our alliance. Yes, the Manipulator was stolen. You want it, then help me take Centerpoint City. But you have no right to call me a traitor. How dare you? After everything I have done, you repay me by barging into my command dome and making accusations."

"I've already told you, I don't want anything to do with you or your Army anymore!" Vincent shouted.

"And due to your verbal blunder a moment ago, I don't need anything to do with _yours, _for I now have all I wanted from you_._ If that is your choice, then so be it. The alliance we have is now at an end."

Vincent chuckled sinisterly. "Our alliance was ended before I even came into this dome. It was ended the moment I lost The Hand. I did not come here to break alliances with you. I came to _end you_ for your betrayal!"

Suddenly, loose items in the room began to float up from the floor. At first Vorennius thought that the artificial gravity had turned off. But then he realized that it could only be Vincent using his powers, for the fusion coil was glowing madly. Someone else had realized this as well, for a shadow flowed out of the darkness and launched itself at Vincent with arms abnormally long. However, Vincent lifted up the tall figure with his powers, sending Nezilus Thane sailing back towards the outskirts of the dome. Then a spherical barrier began to shimmer into existence, surrounding both Vincent and Vorennius. Thane was left outside.

"You and I are alone now, Admiral," said Vincent. "Your bodyguard cannot help you in here. Any last words?"

"I have none and need none," said Vorennius as he reached for an object on his belt. A brilliant blade of light appeared in his hand. It was a White Blade, commonly referred to as an Energy Sword, and it had kept the Admiral company ever since the revolution on Roster Teth. Its glow illuminated the spherical barrier, causing the surroundings to change into a transparent abyss of sky blue. "Take me if you can," the Admiral goaded to the fusion coil. With his left arm, he angled his hand above his helmet, with the White Blade aimed at Vincent, so that he was poised like a scorpion with a glowing tail.

Both entities stared at each other for a long moment. Then they lunged.

Vincent plunged towards the Admiral like a falcon coming for its prey. But Vorennius was suddenly fast, because in the next instant he was not in the place Vincent was swooping down towards. Another instant, and a painful slash impacted the fusion coil from the side. The psychic barrier he always kept around himself prevented Vincent from exploding, but the White Blade cut deep into the energies surrounding the fusion coil, completely throwing off his focus. Vincent floated up into the air again, coming to a stop at the very top of the spherical barrier. "How?"

"A property of the weapon which I wield," Vorennius stated sharply. "The resonance of the energy stored in the blade is capable of interfering with telekinetic influence. It is the weakness of many things, which is why I always keep it with me. I am never unprepared: this you should have realized about me from my reputation alone."

Vincent cackled. "Ah, but you can't reach me up here, can you?"

"Then I will patiently wait for you," Vorennius replied calmly. "I have much time to spare. Can the same be said for you, I wonder?"

Vincent growled, his anger showing through yet again. Then he swooped down again. The response to this action was another miss, followed by another slash at his side. At that, Vincent moved again for the Admiral, not as a lunge, for he was already at ground level, but as a push in the Admiral's direction. The Admiral stood still as a statue—and then he was gone! Of course, another side slash impacted Vincent.

"Do you know what Einstein defined insanity to be?" Vorennius called over to Vincent from behind the fusion coil. Vincent saw the Admiral coming at him, quick as lightening, and just barely dodged. "Doing the same thing over and over again when it clearly does not work," the Admiral finished. Almost as if to try to prove the Admiral's point, Vincent lunged for the Admiral, missed, and got side attacked for the fourth time.

Vorennius could plainly see that his attacks were having an effect on the fusion coil: Vincent's massively glowing light (the indication of his use of psychic powers) was beginning to flicker. Furthermore, the sound of Vincent's grunts were turning more into pants. The Admiral did not know what kind of circulation a fusion coil went through, or if sentient fusion coils even had a circulatory system, but the correct interpretation of Vincent's utterings could only be complete exhaustion.

"How…are you still…alive…" Vincent wheezed. Out of desperation, he levitated some metallic object within the spherical barrier and flung it at Vorennius. But of course, the Admiral did not get hit. However, watching what happened, Vincent suddenly got an idea of what was going on. Just before the object reached him, Vorennius suddenly became extremely fast, moving faster than any human should be able to. And as the Admiral moved, Vincent could see small white flames emerge from the back of the Admiral's armor, the kind that came out of thruster packs. That was when Vincent realized what was happening: Vorennius would always stand perfectly still until exactly the right moment, then use the thruster pack to dodge out of the way, conserving all of his energy until it was needed, then using it to evade and deal a counterattack at Vincent's flank.

Now that Vincent had figured out Vorennius' strategy, it was time to try out a new tactic. He created a huge glowing orange ball in front of him, which simply appeared out of thin air. It was a spherical cloud of plasma contained within a force field. Called a Kill Ball, it could vaporize anything it came in contact with. With his new toy, Vincent whirled the Kill Ball around the inside of the spherical barrier. As the Kill Ball was the size of a Scorpion Tank, this was difficult to manage, because the ball of plasma already took up so much volume of the inside of the barrier.

The Admiral dodged out of the way using his thruster pack…and then did something which Vincent could not have anticipated: he ran a little bit up the wall of the spherical barrier, then leapt off, and activated his thruster pack while in midair. This added momentum propelled him towards the center of the inside of the barrier…and Vincent. Another slash from the White Blade caused Vincent to lose focus yet again. The Kill Ball fell to the floor, and instantly disappeared, as Vincent's consciousness was required for it to remain manifest. Another strategy Vincent had hoped to defeat the Admiral with was gone.

Letting out a cry of rage, Vincent levitated a massive metal stanchion, a pillar for the command dome, and ripped it out of its foundation, then twirled it around in the air like a club. Easily as massive as a small vehicle, one hit from it would likely be fatal for the Admiral. He swung it down as fast as he could move it with the will of his mind. The Admiral dodged. Then Vincent swung down with the stanchion a second time. The Admiral again dodged, of course. But this time, Vincent kept the bar moving after the Admiral. The Admiral's thruster pack stopped, halting his movement, but the bar kept coming. The Admiral saw it in time and fell to the ground, rolling underneath the stanchion. The fact that he missed infuriated Vincent, and he lifted up the stanchion again, bringing it down on one end to slam against the floor. Of course, the Admiral wasn't there when it hit. Still moving from his evade, Vorennius sprinted over to stand upon one particular panel of the floor: it seemed to be made of a slightly different metal, because its coloration was not the same as the panels around it. However, Vincent didn't care. He just wanted the Admiral dead. For a fourth time, he raised the stanchion and brought it down.

A sickening crunch came from the floor. At first, Vincent thought that he had finally hit the Admiral, and was about to let out a shout of victory. But then he bothered to look downwards, and realized that the tip of the stanchion had sunk into the floor, the metal of the discolored plate having bent and twisted around the giant rod. Vincent struggled to free the stanchion, but it was to no avail. The stanchion would not move a millimeter. Vincent had nearly exhausted himself trying to telekinetically move the stanchion when he suddenly felt it vibrating. This wasn't because the stanchion was finally moving. Looking along the axis of the metal rod in dismay, the fusion coil witnessed Vorennius running up and along it like a ramp, White Blade at the ready. Having used up much energy on trying to move the stanchion, Vincent could do little to stop the Admiral. Once he was about halfway up the metal rod, Vorennius activated his thruster pack and launched himself at Vincent.

The added momentum caused the White Blade to do far more damage than it otherwise would have. Vincent could feel the blade cut deep into his energies and his consciousness. The fusion coil simply floated around the dome barrier in a daze. The stanchion came into his vision and left it again, over and over. It wasn't for a few moments until he realized that he was spinning. Then he felt more of his psychic energies give out, and he was forced to slowly float down to the floor. _It's too much…can't take this… _He looked back up to the top of the stanchion, and saw Vorennius standing at the very tip of that pinnacle, staring down at him victoriously. Then the Admiral hopped off of the stanchion, and quickly became larger in Vincent's vision. A brilliant flash of white light was the next thing he saw.

The Admiral was unrelenting. The White Blade became a storm of light in his gauntlets. As though it had a life of its own, a life of pure fury, the Admiral brought the White Blade down upon the helpless Vincent, slashing again and again, coming at him from every angle. The space around the fusion coil became a sea of flashes of white light. Vincent began to shriek as the combo ensued, his cries managing to leave the psychic barrier and reverberate throughout the command dome.

A swirling orb of light appeared behind the fusion coil, enlarging just enough to admit Vincent. And then, with one final burst of psychic discharge, Vincent propelled himself through the portal, a desperate act to save his own life in an admission of defeat. The portal closed immediately after Vincent entered it, condensing itself down to a single bright point before vanishing altogether.

Vorennius deactivated the White Blade, letting out a sigh of relief and exhaustion. Looking around himself, he could see that the psychic spherical barrier Vincent had created was now disappearing. It became more translucent, at the same time dissolving into subtle specks of light which floated down like snow. The top of the dome barrier went first, and the area under it followed. The air soon became filled with glowing particles. It was only a few seconds later when the barrier was gone altogether, and the specks of light on the floor became dimmer and vanished. The longer Vincent's consciousness was away from the psychic barrier, the weaker it became, until it seemed as though it had never existed.

Still watching the last of the barrier dissolve, Vorennius heard familiar steps coming towards him quickly. "I am fine," he informed Nezilus Thane. "The conflict was intense, but nothing that I could not persevere."

"Vincent," Thane said in his smooth, watery voice. "Is the fusion coil gone?"

"Gone back to the dimension he came from," Vorennius stated proudly. "I doubt that he will make an attempt on my life again after this encounter. For as long as I possess a White Blade, he will not be able to harm me."

The Admiral walked over to the stanchion that was now imbedded in the metal grating floor. During the fight, Vorennius had goaded Vincent into sending the tip of the stanchion into an access hatch trapdoor. The material of the trapdoor was aluminum instead of steel, and so had bent around the stanchion at impact instead of reflecting the stanchion. He looked over the giant beam. "I need this removed. Its appearance does not become my command dome." He made a mental note to order it removed as soon as he got to the holographic console. "But first, there is another, much more important matter that must be attended to."

He strode over to the holographic console and reopened the window showing Centerpoint City's location. _Vincent may have just tried to kill me, but my last encounter with him was actually quite helpful, _the Admiral thought to himself. _Because of him, I now know the location of the Green Army's capitol city, at long last._ The moment he had been waiting for had now arrived. "Computer," he ordered to the _Avant Garde's _artificial intelligence. "Assemble the Vice Admiralty."

A second window plane opened up next to the first. A _please wait_ logo shone upon it for perhaps fifteen seconds, and was then replaced with the visors of six very important Purple soldiers. Each one was a general who had led the Purple Armies to revolt on Roster Teth, alongside Vorennius himself. Together, the seven of them had taken back the planet, and Vorennius knew that each and every one of his six could be trusted with his life. The last time the Vice Admiralty had assembled had been almost three days ago, in person, on the _Avant Garde, _when Vorennius had first briefed them on his plans for XBOXL1V.

"Admiral," said Gorn Wilhuff. "What news?" Gorn Wilhuff had originally been the general to oversee XBOXL1V, but had recently been sent back to Roster Teth to take charge of the forces there.

"My brethren," Vorennius stated slowly and proudly. "The day we have all been waiting for has arrived. I have just discovered the location of Centerpoint City. Vengeance is at hand."

Nods of approval and enthusiasm came from the six members of the Vice Admiralty. "Most excellent, Admiral," said Yoren Stendaar, the general of the Far Reaches. "Your forces are in place, I trust? Good, then Centerpoint City is ready to fall, and the rest of the Green Army with it."

"Indeed it is," said the Admiral. "The reason I have summoned all of you is so that you may watch with me as the city is destroyed. I will inform the Twins that it is time to strike, and then it will begin."

He opened a third window next to the first two. The responders to this summons were only two soldiers, but each represented a powerful weapon that Vorennius had been waiting a long time to bring into play. "Captain Thenriss, Captain Fenrir," the Admiral greeted as he nodded at both in turn. "Centerpoint City has been located. It is time to strike. Bring both of your ships into realspace, but both must be cloaked. Yellow Command stands in geosynchronous orbit above the city, for it seems that the Greens believe that the station will help protect them, in their new alliance with the Yellows."

Captain Fenrir gave a low chuckle. "They are fools."

"They will come to realize that at their end," the Admiral agreed.

"Shall we bother to destroy Yellow Command, or simply incapacitate it?" Captain Thenriss asked.

"Incapacitate it," said the Admiral. "All you need to do is make it past the station, while ensuring that it cannot attack. Given its size, the station's destruction will take too long. The city is the capitol of an entire Army, whereas Yellow Command is only the capitol of an Army's forces on this planet. The city is what matters."

"Understood," said Captain Thenriss. "Both of our ships are preparing to launch as we speak."

The shipyards of Roster Teth had only been operating for just under a month. In that time, the shipyards had been able to assemble two cruisers, sister ships. Called the _Edge of Glory _and the _Edge of Doom, _these Twins had become the centerpiece of the attack fleet that Vorennius had stationed in slipspace, just outside of XBOXL1V's gravity well. They were captained by Torrhen Fenrir and Zanos Thenriss, respectively. Just as the Admiral had planned, the Twins would serve as the attack force on Centerpoint City, with the rest of the attack fleet coming into play for the rest of the planet once the city had fallen.

The Admrial watched his displays as the Twins entered realspace and began moving towards the planet, like an alligator in a lake slowly drifting towards unsuspecting prey. Both ships were making use of state-of-the-art cloaking technology, which would obscure the ships from radar and used a projection technology to blend into their surroundings, so that they could not be detected by the naked eye. Everything was in place. The stage was set for vengeance and victory.

"This will be a day to remember, my brethren," said Vorennius to his Vice Admiralty. "For this day, our sworn enemies shall face the Edge of Glory, and then the Edge…"

"…of Doom."


	37. It Begins

37 – IT BEGINS

Bradley Patton stared out into space through the great curved window of the bridge on Yellow Command. It had been a long afternoon. He and the Grand General of the Green Army had spent a good long while discussing and planning Yellow Command's relocation in orbit to defend Centerpoint City. As impressive as Yellow Command was, it was not a starship. It had not been designed for travel, having been built with only small engines used for powering the station. So in place of ion drives, the station had had to rely on the emergency thrusters. The emergency thrusters were only intended to be used to propel the station a short distance, should a large asteroid be heading towards it or something like that. But with no other means of propulsion, Yellow Command had used these to slowly push the station into the proper place in orbit. The ordeal had taken many hours of constant monitoring. Inertial dampening had prevented the inhabitants of the station from feeling the surge whenever the thrusters were fired. Instead, it had been the laborious procedures and calculations that the bridge staff had had to perform which had caused the station's journey to be so stressful. But now, everything was in place. Just an hour ago, the station had made it into geosynchronous orbit above Centerpoint City.

Bradley was tired. The operation had taken the bridge staff till the wee hours of the morning and beyond. Looking briefly at the time in his heads-up display, Bradley noted that it was now just after 0800 hours. It was time for some rest. He turned from the window. The bridge was two levels of control consoles with soldiers at them, which circled around the edge of the room in an arc. The center of the room contained a holographic console which currently showed a three dimensional wire-frame schematic of the station. Bradley looked at his second in command, the soldier who was currently working on the console nearest him. "Avery, how are things?"

Johnson Avery looked up at Bradley. "Still fine, sir. The city is still there, and all operations on the station are proceeding normally."

Bradley nodded. "Good, good. I um, I think I might retire for a few hours. You might want to do so yourself."

"Perhaps, in a few moments," Avery said.

Bradley walked into the center of the bridge, towards the door leading to the rest of the station. But then a surprised gasp from Avery, as well as some navigation officers at the same instant, stopped him in his tracks. He whirled around, instinct kicking in. Gasping navigation officers were never a good sign. "What is it?"

"We've just picked something up outside…but it doesn't make any sense," said one of the navigation officers.

"Explain," Bradley ordered.

"We've picked up subtle heat signatures that are coming towards the station at a speed of one megameter per minute. Problem is, our radar isn't picking up anything except the heat. Both are a stream of ions, but we can't tell where they're coming from."

"Are there any icy asteroids within our vicinity?" Bradley asked.

"That's a negative, sir," said Avery. "We blasted away all space debris anywhere near us when we settled into this place in orbit. Furthermore, if they were asteroids, then we'd have visual confirmation. But we are picking up nothing, repeat _nothing_, from these things. The ion trails are appearing out of nowhere, as far as we can tell."

"Both signatures are still heading towards the station," said a second navigation officer. "Two point five megameters from us and closing." Then he tensed. "Sir! Both signatures have just changed speed. Two megameters per minute. No, three. Four! Sir, the signatures are accelerating right at us!"

"Asteroids don't have a sudden change in speed," Bradley shouted. "Red alert! Everyone, battle stations!"

The lighting in the room changed to red, casting the chamber in a bloody hue. Soldiers got up and began sprinting to and fro all over the room hurriedly. At the same time, subtle vibrations could be felt as the station opened up its weapon ports. In the midst of the chaos, Bradley strode diligently over to the holographic console and hit a button on it, which caused his command chair to rise out of the floor. No battle was complete for Bradley without his command chair. He sat down, comfy and ready. "Fire at the signatures as soon as the weapons are fully charged."

"The signatures are right next to us, sir!" shouted Avery. "We don't have time to fire!"

A tingle of panic began to creep down Bradley's spine. The station was defenseless if it could not attack its enemy at range.

An image began to appear outside the bridge window. The panorama of space was shimmering, as though a heat wave were in front of the station. But outside was space, and heat waves required the presence of air. The image began to take coherence, and Bradley's worst fears were confirmed. A great metal hull, painted all in dark purple, materialized outside the window. This new object stretched half the length of the station, a titanium behemoth. All along its sides were rows upon rows of some kind of turret, which were popping out of the hull of the ship as it moved across the window. Bradley could visibly see that all of the turrets, every single member of the thousands of them, were powering up. The words EDGE OF DOOM passed by the window, and Bradley had just enough time to shout "_Everyone get down!_" at the top of his lungs before all hell broke loose.

The windows shattered. Air began to rush out, taking all manner of loose items with it, but something else was rushing in. The bridge was filled with metallic balls, each about the size of a tennis ball, which stuck to every metallic surface they landed upon with an electronic hum. The emergency blast doors began to close over the windows. The main problem, however, was already inside. No sooner had the blast doors finished closing, and the rush of air stopped, when the many dozens of balls in the bridge suddenly began to glow brighter than anything Bradley had ever seen. Their surfaces burned brilliantly, and the entire bridge became so bright that Bradley could hardly see, even with the adaptive tinting of his visor. His shields died, and all around him, he could hear the horrible crackling and fizzing of circuits. At the same time, his armor's mobility gave out, and he fell to the floor on his back, unable to move except for the groggiest of motions. _It's an electromagnetic pulse,_ he realized. _Vorennius is trying to paralyze this station._

Off in the distance, he could hear similar sounds, meaning that the two enemy ships were indeed peppering the entire station with the goddamned balls. The tremendous brightness lasted for another few seconds, and then finally stopped. Bradley took a breath, grasping for a nearby console counter to hoist himself from the ground as he did so. All over the room, soldiers were getting up from the floor, and looked as though they had been hit as hard as he had. The lights were all out, and so were the monitors. With the blast doors now closed over the windows, the bridge was cast into near complete darkness, save for the shield indicator lights of the soldiers, as well as the glowing of their tacpads. The air was filled with smoke, and everywhere he could see flashes of sparks from the consoles. Bradley looked around for his second in command. "Avery, status report!" he called out.

Bradley's second in command got up and walked over to his designated console. He tapped buttons on it for a few seconds, before throwing up his gauntlets in dismay. He then opened his tacpad and stared at it for some time. "I'm patching into the feeds of the station from all the readouts I can find," he stated.

"And?" Bradley asked apprehensively.

"Oh dear God," Avery cursed. "It seems that the two enemy cruisers have moved on, but while they were here they shot the station through and through with those pulse emitters. Nearly all the systems are fried: engines, weapons, communications, lighting. Life support is on backup generators. But that does little good, because with the thrusters gone we're sitting ducks. The station has been effectively incapacitated by this attack."

Bradley stood still, listening. A short moment after Avery had finished speaking, Bradley then walked over to a fallen swivel chair, picked it up, and threw it across the room. "GOD DAMMIT!" He walked over to another chair and threw that one as well. A few very deep breaths followed, at which point he was able to compose himself. He didn't need to look to know that everyone on the bridge was staring at him. "I've had a very bad day," he offered as an explanation. "Haven't we all?"

"What should we do, sir?" Avery asked.

Bradley walked back to his command chair and sat down in it. His timeout lasted for perhaps two minutes, at which point he ordered: "First, we need to get life support off of backup. Get some mainline power going, and set life support on that." Then he suddenly shot up. "The city! Oh fuck, _the city!_"

"Sir?" Avery asked.

"We have to warn Centerpoint City!" Bradley shouted. "Don't you see? That's why those Purple ships just up and left us. Because they're not after _us_. We were just in the way. They're after the fucking city!" He began pacing madly in a tense circle. "I don't care how you do it, Avery, but get me the Grand General, ASAP. Centerpoint City is in mortal danger!"

* * *

Skope's tacpad alarm system woke him up at exactly 0800 hours. He groggily got out of bed, put the rest of his armor on, and headed down to the commons of the hotel to join the rest of Lime and Lemon Squadrons for breakfast. The events of last evening were still playing out in his mind. He couldn't believe that what had happened had actually happened. He had been completely unaware of the chemistry between him and Amber until that moment. The part of it all that kept returning to him was how alive he had felt during their embrace. Only part of it had been sexual. Some of those emotions, though, had been conjured by something else. Did that mean he loved Amber? Was that what love felt like? He shook his helmet as he walked. Whatever he and Amber had between them, it was only a one-time thing. It had to be, because relationships like this were not allowed under the Code of Green Army Regulations, even more so for relationships between soldiers of different Armies. He and Amber would just behave like nothing had ever happened, and that would be that. He finally came to the common room.

Everyone was staring at him.

Plates of food were sitting out across a wide table, where both Lime and Lemon Squadrons were sitting. From the orientation of everyone's seats, everyone seemed to be centered around Amber, who had her hands upon her visor in embarrassment. It was at this moment when Skope remembered his failure to prevent that bastard Yellow named Ryan Hobar from telling everyone. This was another one of those moments in life where there was no sound, but the absence of any sound spoke far louder than anything Skope had heard before.

Flittingly, he raised his right gauntlet and waved at everyone meekly. "Hi…guys…"

"Well well well," boomed Hearts. "The guest of honor has finally arrived. We've all been waiting for you."

"Go ahead, take a seat," said Patton. "We have a nice little place picked out just for you." He motioned over to the one empty chair at the table. "Then put some breakfast on your plate and eat up, because all of us are gonna have a little bit of a talk."

Skope shot a sharp look at Ryan, who turned his gaze away. The Green then walked over to his chair and slowly sat down, looking around at everyone as he did so. Doing his best to seem inconspicuous, he reached out to some of the foods on the table and plopped servings of them on his plate. He tried not to acknowledge the fact that everyone was staring at him and watching every single move that he made. But eventually, he came to realize that this meal was really going to be an interrogation about his supposed relationship. The Yellows, certainly, would want to extract everything from him about what had happened last evening.

The first question did not come from a Yellow, however. It came from Kenny: "So Skope, did you and Amber have butt sex or something? I've only heard bits and pieces of this, and I'm still not quite sure exactly what's going on."

Skope chocked for a second on a mouthful of eggs when he heard the words "butt sex". After breathing again, he then rose up violently from the table. "My God, Hobar, what the _fuck_ did you tell everyone?"

Ryan put his hands in front on himself defensively. "I didn't say anything about butt sex, I swear!"

Now it was Kenny's turn to wave his hands. "Never mind. I just heard wrong. Oral sex, was that it?"

Ryan nodded. "Yup, that's what I saw."

"Shut up, you!" Skope shouted at the Yellow.

"Everyone, calm down," said Hester sternly. "I need to get all the facts straight, and I don't want that interfered with from arguing. I need everyone to sit down."

As he was the only one currently standing up, Skope sat down.

"Now then, Specialist Hobar," Hester continued. "Tell us: what did you witness?"

Ryan cleared his throat. "Well, I had just finished my dinner at the buffet last night," he began. He paused when he saw that both Skope and Amber were staring lasers at him. Yet despite this, he persisted in his tale. "I drove back to the hotel and went into the common room…and saw Amber and Skope snogging each other, helmets off, going full tongue on each other. They saw me, I ran, then I used my tacpad to call all of you. And I think that's about that."

Hester turned and looked both at Skope and then at Amber. "Now, I need one or both of you to tell me: is this true?"

Skope looked at Amber. He didn't want to say anything, but he also knew that he had to. And it couldn't be a lie either, because he was sure that Hester could detect a lie, for she had not risen to the position of leader for Lemon Squadron by being easy to fool. What, then, should he do?

Amber spared Skope the task of having to explain. "Yes," she said slowly, sounding somewhat withdrawn. "What Ryan says is true. But it's not like what he makes it sound like. We were just sitting next to each other on the couch…and then…it just happened."

"You both just up and went for it?" Hearts asked. "I've never heard of spontaneous snogging before."

"We talked a bit, before we…went for it," Amber explained.

"What were you talking about?"

"I dunno. Stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Just…things that we both had been through in the recent past."

Hester's gaze now turned to Skope. "Christopher Skope, now it is your turn. I need you to tell me…are you and Amber Stone in a relationship?"

The bluntness of the question hit Skope so hard that he was flabbergasted for a moment. "I-uh…" Everyone was staring at him

"It's a yes or no question," said Hester.

The pressure everyone's stares were putting upon him made him feel suddenly very small. Amber's gaze seemed most forceful. But Skope didn't know what to say. His mouth would not work. The silence in the room became unbearable.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Everyone in the room jolted at the sounds of alarm sirens from outside. Some of the group quickly got up from the table and strode to the windows to look outside. The alarm was still going, repeating its long loud cry over and over again. Down on ground level, people were coming out of their homes and buildings, probably wondering exactly what Lemon and Lime were.

"Oh no," Skope heard Nome say from his side. "Those are red alert warning alarms."

"Red alert?" Kenny asked apprehensively.

"They are supposed to sound in the event that the city is under attack," Nome replied.

"Under attack?" Jess exclaimed. "But that's not possible. Whoever is attacking would have had to go through Yellow Command already. The city can't possibly be under attack!"

"Up there!" Clair said loudly. "I see something."

The rest of the group followed her gaze. High above the tallest structures in the city, small in thy sky but quickly growing larger, were two purple spots situated right next to each other. As the seconds passed, the dots enlarged, and the group could make out the bulky rectangular shapes of cruisers. "This is bad," Ryan analyzed.

Almost as if the situation was agreeing with Ryan, something happened to further his point. All of the video postboards in the city suddenly turned off, all at the same instant. The flashiness of the city streets went completely dead. The people on the street were stumbling around, wondering what was going on. Their questions were answered only a moment later.

The postboards reactivated. Except this time, instead of some entertainment clip, every single postboard in the entire city now showed the exact same image. A solider stood tall and lean, with a dark backdrop behind him. His primary armor color was purple, but his shoulder and knee pads were green colored. His visor, long and curving, stretched around the front of his helmet. The figure was unmistakable, especially to those in the Green Army, who had all learned to fear this soldier like the black of night.

Admiral Hathrow Vorennius, the leader of the Purple Army.

Vorennius spoke, his words slow and deep, yet deliberate and somewhat menacing at the same time. "Greetings, citizens of Centerpoint City. I trust that you all remember me, though it has been a long time, has it not? Three years is a long time, certainly. You all must have thought that the Purple Army was defeated. Yet it is your victory that has defeated you. I see that you have become clumsy and careless in your tactics and strategies. You thought that Yellow Command would help keep you safe, when instead it has allowed me to find your precious capitol city. The Yellow's station now lies behind my main attack force, paralyzed and helpless. This city is open for the taking."

Panicked gasps began to sound off throughout the streets, from the masses that now had their visors glued to the video postboards.

The Admiral continued his speech. "For three years, I have planned this day. This day, when the Purple Army shall exact justice against its old enemies. This day, when the fall of the Green and Yellow Armies begins. This day, the day that those of future history will say is the day that the powers of the war began to shift. Vengeance is at hand, and through it shall rise the dawn of the glory era of the Purple Army…and the beginning of the end for your Army, as well as your pathetic alliance with the Yellows. For with every new beginning must come endings."

A small flash of light originated from one of the cruisers. It traveled like a streak of lightening, nearly too fast for the group to see, and landed somewhere in the city. At that same instant, one of the largest office buildings suddenly shattered into a cloud of dust, like a tall sand castle that had just been fired at with a magnum. Pieces of debris rained down upon the nearby streets, causing explosions everywhere the largest pieces fell. At the same moment, a sonic boom thundered across the city.

"This…is your end," said the Admiral. All of the video postboards shut off simultaneously.

The masses on the streets stood in a stunned, terrified silence for the next moment, most still not believing that this was actually happening. Then a second building disappeared into a glittering cloud of glass and stone and metal and dust. After that, it was as though a switch had been flipped, and complete pandemonium overtook the crowds. Everyone began screaming and running in random directions. Whole mobs trampled over each other to get out of the district. Cars began to pile up in accidents as drivers, desperate to escape the city, failed to make it past the many other drivers who were trying to do the same.

All the while, the two Purple cruisers descended upon the city like terrible phantoms of nightmare. Their shadows began to take shape on the ground, as the sun was blocked out from various perspectives, and certain districts were plunged into an unnatural darkness. Then another barrage came: A third building disappeared, then a fourth. The dust clouds swirled in the wind and began to create a haze of fog.

Lemon Squadron and Lime Squadron stared out at the city in terror. The worst possible situation had become reality. Centerpoint City, the center of command for the entire Green Army, was now under siege by its oldest and most cunning adversary.


	38. The Siege

38 – THE SIEGE

A sonic roar thundered outside as Richard Face, the Grand General of the Green Army, watched the video feeds of the city in horror. A cylindrical wall of computer monitors surrounded him in his suite's viewing room, each picture showing another scene of desperation. The two Purple cruisers descended towards the city, covering much of the sky with their bulk. _How did they get past Yellow Command,_ The Grand General wondered. He had been trying to contact the orbital station for a full minute now, but they were not responding, which did not bode well for the survival of Bradley and his men. To make matters worse, a fleet of drop pods was emerging from both of the cruisers, and already reports had begun to crop up of Purple foot soldiers marching in the city streets. Vorennius indeed meant business, for this was an all-out siege.

The Grand General heard footsteps behind him and turned to find the Lord Commander of his Elite Guard standing in the doorway. "Sir, we need to get you underground ASAP," he said. "Entire buildings are being destroyed. It is not safe for you to be here."

The Grand General nodded, but then gave slight pause. "Is the underground safe? When the Oranges launched their own attack…"

The Lord Commander nodded. "All the necessary countermeasures have been taken to ensure that the Oranges will not return. A suite has been set up for you at the very bottom of the depths of the city."

"I will need a viewing room and a war room set up for me by the time I arrive," said the Grand General as he began to follow. "Oh, and what of Lime and Lemon Squadrons?"

As the two of them moved out into the hallway, the Grand General heard the other members of the Elite Guard fall into step behind him and the Lord Commander. "They are still alive," said the Lord Commander. "They have left their suite and are currently on an access bridge, heading for the main level of the city. Shall I have them sent for?"

The Grand General shook his helmet. "That is not necessary." He opened up his tacpad.

* * *

"MOVE!" shouted Hester as every member of Lime Squadron ran as a group along the street. The lanes were all packed with abandoned civilian cars. They were on one of the access bridges, which stretched far above the main level of the city. After seeing the city come under attack, they had all decided to abandon the suite and make for the center of the city. The fastest route to get there was across this bridge, which slowly inclined downwards until it reached the main level.

The air around them was filled with dust and smoke which rose up from underneath the bridge as though the city were on fire. It was dust from the several buildings that had been blown to pieces from the coilguns of the two Purple cruisers. The bridge they were an was somewhat of a victim in all of this as well, for parts of it had been nicked by the coilgun slugs as they had traveled down to meet their targets on the main level. Everywhere, pieces of debris littered the street, covering it in layers of shattered stone and cooling puddles of metal. From far down below them, Lime could hear sounds of gunfire that echoed across the city.

Skope and Nome heard the sound of humming motors above them and looked into the sky to find a dropship coming down to land on the bridge. The group stopped, the others soon catching on as well, and the entire group began to slowly approach the dropship with weapons raised. A Warthog thunked to the ground, with a Purple driver and gunner. A sound was heard from Hearts' sniper rifle, after which the driver tumbled out of his seat and onto the ground. The gunner had a chance to get off a few rounds from his chaingun before Wren ran up to him and inserted a combat knife into his back.

But the dropship wasn't done, for no sooner had the inhabitants of the Warthog been taken care of when a dozen more Purple soldiers levitated down the gravity lift of the dropship, landing in perfect formation. Lime let it loose with their weapons, but only one of the Purples was felled, for the others all took cover behind abandoned cars. At the same moment, a transparent dome, glittering like the surface of a soap bubble, flashed into existence around the Purple platoon, centering itself upon the dropship.

"What the hell?" Jess asked.

"They're idiots," said Kenny. "They can't shoot at us if they're inside a shield—"

A flurry of bullets came whizzing out at them. They all ducked on instinct. Amber returned fire, but her 14.5 millimeter rounds pinged off of the Purple's energy shield as though it were a wall. "It is a one way shield dome," shouted Nome as everyone found a car to take cover behind. "Yet another one of Vorennius' new inventions, no doubt."

"Ah, fucking perfect!" shouted Deryn.

"This complicates things, if they can shoot at us be we can't shoot at them," said Skope.

Mr. Boom suddenly stood up. "Um, what're you doing?" asked Kevin. Mr. Boom was mute, and so did not respond. Instead, the large Green hoisted up his rocket launcher onto his shoulder and began sprinting towards the Purple platoon. He wove in between cars for cover, sometimes diving or rolling in order to stay alive.

"Could someone please explain to me where he's going?" Patton shouted.

"No idea!" Skope shouted back.

Mr. Boom was now inside the shield. He raised his rocket launcher and fired at the dropship's engines. The shot went straight into a porthole, and the hovercraft ignited. Mr. Boom took cover just as the back end of the dropship exploded. The front half floated slowly to the ground and then shattered into pieces. The energy shield then dissipated, leaving the Purple soldiers exposed.

"Very impressive, Mr. Boom," said Hester. "I'll have to keep that trick in mind."

"Well guys," Hearts shouted. "Let's get 'em!"

Every member of Lime and Lemon got up and opened fire. Some of the Purples went down, others quickly relocated their cover. It was a quick gunfight for the remaining Purples, for now they were outnumbered. Lemon also had considerably more experience, as was shown by how quickly Lemon picked them off, with help from the Greens as well. "That was a good fight," said Patton as he reloaded Lucy.

"It is only the very beginning," the others head Nome say, in a tone of dread, from the edge of the bridge. The medic was standing at the railing and looking down below, to the city beneath them. The others gathered around him and watched alongside him. A steady stream of dropships and drop pods could be seen raining down from both Purple cruisers. They landed in one particular section of the city, right below the cruisers, which was near the outskirts. Like a bath of little soap bubbles amidst the fog of dust, Lime and Lemon could see thousands of shield domes, just like the one Mr. Boom had taken out, glittering in that sector. They were all moving in the direction of the Capitol District. A fury of gunfire rattled from the direction of the horde, a clear sign of the conflict at that location.

The cruisers themselves were no less a part of the battle. An inverted rainstorm thundered up, the defense turrets of the city having targeted the cruisers. But all their shots just bounced off of the cruiser's shields with flashes of blue light wherever they hit. At the same time, terrible flashes of lightening and crashes of thunder could be heard from both cruisers as their coilguns released volley after volley. Buildings at the main level were annihilated into little pieces of flying debris, in sync with every instant the cruisers fired. With one sector of the city already lost, many buildings destroyed, and no damage done yet to the cruisers, the fight was suddenly starting to look desperately one sided.

Everyone's tacpads started beeping at the same instant, the sign of a group wide calling signal. It turned out to be the Grand General. "Sir!" Hester greeted.

"The city is in grave peril," same an exasperated sigh from the other end of the transmission. "Out of concern for my own safety, I have moved underground, and am currently in the process of setting up a base of operations at the same location that Green Team fought the Orange Army a few days back."

"Don't worry," the Grand General answered, sensing that many of the Greens were about to butt in with a question. "I have taken all necessary precautions to ensure that the Oranges cannot teleport into this city again. Of course, at this very moment, we have far greater concerns."

Nome said: "Sir, at this instant we are all at an access bridge leading into the city. We have a panoramic view of the situation down below, and it does not look promising by any elaboration of theory. The two Purple cruisers are dispatching soldiers into the Western District at a rate of several contingents per minute. At present, there are at least three thousand Purples within the city, all situated within the Western District, and all of them are swiftly moving towards the Capitol District."

"Yes, I know," came the terse reply over the COM.

"What about Yellow Command?" Patton asked.

"They are not responding to any hail," said the Grand General. "I am sorry, Patton, but at this point we do not know if the station still remains, though my hopes are with Bradley and his men."

"He's alive…" Patton whispered to himself. "I just know."

"What do you need us to do, sir?" Hearts asked.

The Grand General cleared his throat. "Okay, people. Here are all your various objectives: Lemon Squadron, I need you on the front lines. My forces there are losing badly. We need come expertise to help turn the tide."

"Yessir!" shouted Hester.

"Nome, Skope, and Amber, I need you three to head for the defense turret lines. I need Nome to help repair them, since according to his file he used to assist at Avalanche Base, which is good enough experience for my concerns. And the reason I need you there, Skope and Amber, is to take up sniping positions along the turret lines and take out as many soldiers as you can. You will find ammo at the designated location to supply your rifles."

"We got it, sir!" said Skope as he looked over at Amber, and then Nome.

"And everyone else, I want you to assist Lemon Squadron in any way you can. Head to the front lines, but do not actively engage the enemy at a personal level, for that is going to be Lemon's job. Instead, you will play the support role, both for Lemon as well as any other friendly soldiers who need assistance."

"Does blowing things up with my rocket launcher constitute supporting?" Kenny asked.

"Do whatever will help keep Lemon and other fellow soldiers alive," the Grand General replied. "If that means taking out the enemy, then do exactly that."

"More than happy to, sir," said Kenny gleefully.

"Now, do all of you have your tasks down?" the Grand General asked. Everyone tapped the CONFIRM option on their tacpads. "Then get to it!" the Grand General shouted. "Just hold out. In a very short while, the entire city will be getting some major assistance."

The Grand General disconnected, and everyone on Lemon and Lime hurried off to carry out the tasks they had been given.

* * *

The cargo elevator finally ended its long descent. The Grand General felt slightly heavier as the car came to a stop, which was worth keeping aware of considering the massive amount of protective armor he was wearing. Once the car stopped completely however, this feeling abruptly ended as soon as it had come. Now feeling all business, the Grand General strode through the doors of the car before they had even opened completely. His Elite Guard followed, making sure to stay close to him with every step that he took.

"Is my war room set up yet?" the Grand General asked the Elite Guard's Lord Commander.

The Lord Commander briefly scanned his tacpad. "Almost, sir. We are nearly upon it. It should be set up well enough to function by the time we arrive."

A location designation appeared on the Grand General's heads-up display. "Excellent," he stated. "Every second we doddle gives the Purple Army an advantage. I will need to get to work commanding the defense force as soon as possible."

They were walking down a large hallway that was composed entirely of stone. The chambers were lit by florescent ceiling bulbs which further enhanced the light tan coloration of the surroundings. The group took several turns in corridor, until eventually they came to the chamber that had swiftly been repurposed as the Grand General's war room. A holographic console had been set up in the center of the box-shaped space, and along the edges were arrays of terminals hooked up to video feeds of the city.

The Grand General walked up to one of the consoles and tapped a few buttons. A short moment later, one of the video feeds showed the visor of a Green soldier with many a medal strutting out on his chestplate. "Captain Halcor," said the Grand General. "How far from the city is the _Grand Castellan_?"

"Just a few minutes now, sir," said Halcor. "I altered the ship's course the instant I learned that the city is under attack."

"The two Purple cruisers are destroying the city," the Grand General exclaimed. "Make haste."

"Of course," said Captain Halcor. The feed shut off.

The Grand General then turned to the central holographic console and brought up a three dimensional display of the city, with icons representing friendly and enemy forces. He had little doubt that Hathrow Vorennius was staring at a console just like this right now. Two could play at that game. It was time for the Grand General to start leading his forces in the same way that Vorennius was leading his own.

* * *

The sound of gunfire became massively louder as Lemon Squadron, as well as most of Lime Squadron, sprinted for the front lines. The Purple Army was now only about two kilometers from the western border of the Capitol District, and it would not be long before the city center fell, if things kept going the way they were. The tide needed to be turned, and fast!

Abandoned civilian cars filled the streets, just as they had along the access bridge the group had come from. Debris from shattered buildings was all over the street was well. Huge chunks of stone sat in small craters of smashed concrete where they had landed after the buildings they used to belong to had exploded. And the fog was now omnipresent, covering everything in a suffocating cloud of dense mist. Many within the group had to activate the infrared settings in their helmets in order to see, since visibly the fog made the goings ahead unseeable. Every so often, civilians would come running out of the fog in a panic; in the chaos of the attack on the city, evacuations had not gone perfectly smoothly, or anywhere close. Off in the far distance, more tremendous roars of thunder could be heard, as more buildings were annihilated by the coilguns of the two Purple cruisers.

A sign indicated that they had just passed the border into the Western District. Upon seeing giant pockmarks in the road further on, Hester instead chose to lead the group along a side street, which took the group through a giant hole in a brick wall. They were now in the lobby of what had once been a hotel. "Place could use a bit of a fixer upper," said Ryan as everyone looked around. Nearly everything that could possibly have been shattered, had been shattered. There were no longer any complete glass fixtures: the windows were all gone, and glass pieces were everywhere upon the floor. The walls had become cracked, the chandelier had fallen, and large chunks of many of the walls were missing.

"My tacpad shows conflict at the other end of this hotel," said Hester. "We should head there immediately." She led the group through a few of the hallways and up a staircase, until they finally came to the place Hester had just referenced. A large platoon of Green soldiers sat camped inside a long chamber that had at one time been a set of suite rooms. Now, the walls dividing the rooms had gone missing (shattered onto the floor), and the wall that had once separated the rooms from the outside had become a series of pillars, since so much of that wall was missing that vertical streaks were all that remained. Lemon found it frankly amazing that so much of the ceiling was still standing, considering its lack of support. The Green soldiers were taking cover behind the pillars, there being no better means of cover with so much of the room already destroyed. Outside, in the hotel's courtyard, a platoon of Purple soldiers were firing up at the Greens with automatic weapons. The same as had happened on the access bridge, these Purples were surrounded by an energy shield dome. Bullets whizzed through the spaces between the pillars, adding to the maelstrom of holes already in the back walls of the chamber.

Upon laying visor upon Lemon and their company, one of the Green soldiers shot up and sprinted over to them, taking advantage of a break in the Purple's fire. His nameplate read Rankev Moora. "Lemon Squadron?" he asked the group. Those who were actually in Lemon Squadron saluted.

"Lieutenant Moora," the Green said. He reached out and shook Heart's hand, as he was the person standing closest to Moora. "Glad to see you. We need help. The Purples have us pinned in here tight. It's those damn shield domes they have around themselves. They can shoot us, be we can't shoot back. We're completely defenseless."

"Have you tried sending someone underneath the shield to take out its generator?" Kevin asked. He briefly described what had happened during the battle on the access bridge.

Moora shook his helmet. "That's a negative. Another major problem is those Purple cruisers above the city. In addition to their coilguns, they also have thousands of turrets that fire all over the district. I've had confirmation from several other contingents as well, that the open ground in this district is a death zone: the instant someone sets a foot out there, they get so many holes in them they look like Swiss cheese. The cruisers have the whole area effectively under lockdown."

Hearts asked: "Is there any point when the cruisers do not have a specific area covered?"

Again, Moora shook his helmet. "The cruisers might cycle through the spots they scan, but there's no way to know for sure, and I'm sure as hell not going to experiment using my men."

Deryn crossed her arms. "Well then, is there any way—"

"SCORPION TANK! EVERYONE GET DOWN!" another Green soldier shouted at the top of his lungs. Everyone in the chamber dived, and none too soon. Several pillars, as well as a part of the ceiling, exploded into dust. An unfortunate Green went screaming across the room and then down below as he fell to the first floor. Above the chamber, crashing and crumbling could be heard as the tungsten shell traveled further into the hotel. At the same instant, the automatic fire from outside increased, and a hail of bullets came streaming in through the newly opened area.

"_We are fucking pinned down!_" Moora shouted over the racket. "If I saw any opportunity to change the situation, then I would have taken it. But I didn't and still don't!"

The salvo of fire through the new hole eventually subsided, at which point the conversation was able to resume in quieter tones. "There has to be some way to solve this," said Wren.

Suddenly, a rumbling sound from overhead could be heard. Fearing the worst, the group looked up into the sky through the hole in the ceiling. A third starship was descending upon the first two. This behemoth was still smaller than the two Purple cruisers, but still presented itself as massive nonetheless. Of great import was the fact that it was green colored. The group's tacpads informed them that this was a Green capitol ship called the _Grand Castellan._

"Reinforcements, at last!" Moora exclaimed.

The _Grand Castellan _opened fire upon the Purple ships almost instantly. A continuous roar of artificial thunder from the sky symphonied, and glints in the sunlight began to exchange between the Purple cruisers and the Green frigate. But most importantly, the group could see that the focus of the Purple cruisers was now off of the open ground in the city.

"This is our chance!" Hearts shouted over to Moora. "Send your men underneath the shield dome."

Moora nodded. "Everyone, on my mark, drop down to the courtyard and make for the enemy's shield dome. Its generator is the target." He gave a countdown hand signal.

"MARK!"

Everyone, Green and Yellow, dropped to main level and ran like hell, the crowd as a whole screaming a battle cry that united both Armies.


	39. The Road to Battle

39 – THE ROAD TO BATTLE

Skope, Amber, and Nome raced towards the line of defense turrets surrounding the Capitol District. As they approached the district, a great metal wall rose up before them, perhaps fifty meters in height. Red colored lights appeared along the side of the wall, indicating that the wall was currently active as a turret array. At the top of the wall, massive chainguns the size of Scorpion Tanks fired off tungsten rounds at the sky, in the direction of the two Purple cruisers currently besieging the city. The three of them stepped into an access elevator and rode it up to the top of the wall. The doors opened, and the two snipers raced to their designated positions along the ramparts. All around them, Green soldiers raced back and forth with hurried purpose. Off in the distance, they could hear officers shouting commands to their squads. And above them, the sky boomed continuously.

"I believe this is where our paths diverge," said Nome as he stared briefly at his tacpad. "For the first turrets I must begin repairs upon are along the opposite border of this district."

Skope wave at Nome. "Farewell, dude."

Nome waved as well, then hopped into the seat of one of the Mongooses sitting around the area and vroomed off down the ramparts. With that, Skope and Amber began making their way to their designated locations. It turned out that their assigned spots were right next to each other, which gave both snipers pause to wonder of the Grand General was aware of their relationship. Both concluded this unlikely however, since Ryan, though known for his spontaneity, seemed at least forsightful enough not to bother the leader of the entire Green Army with something like this.

Amber stared out at the Western District, the view of which was plain from the top of the wall. Purple reinforcements rained down into the hapless district like a terrible hailstorm. The mass of shield domes was moving ever closer, though fortunately was still far enough away not to seem threatening. "The Greens aren't holding them back," she realized aloud.

"The city won't fall," said Skope, as if to reassure her. "We won't let it happen." Though he seemed more like he was trying to convince himself than to convince Amber.

Suddenly, a great flash emanated from the sky. Both snipers looked directly upwards to see a great green colored object sail down through the clouds, all of its turrets immediately opening fire upon the Purple cruisers. At once, the cruisers turned to face the Green ship, the stream of Purple reinforcements from them stopping abruptly. Staring through her sniper scope, Amber saw that the name of the Green ship was _Grand Castellan._ And from its size, it was plainly a capitol ship.

"We have reinforcements!" Skope shouted, pumping his fist in the air. "You see, I told you things would get better!"

The three ships were now embroiled in complete conflict with each other. Between the Purple cruisers and the Green capitol ship, a firestorm of flack and ion beams was being exchanged. The sides of all ships flared blue as the rounds and plasma was absorbed by the massive energy shields surrounding each ship. Whereas only a moment ago the sky had been roaring with artificial thunder, the sound was now far greater: someone from ancient Greece would probably have said that the Gods were having a civil war of epic proportions if they had listened to this racket. Even the ground was now subtly vibrating from the sounds generated by the battle above.

Both snipers were awed by the spectacle in the skies. But then both (more or less at the same time) remembered that they were supposed to be watching the Western District and sniping anything they could. They made their way to the precise coordinates they had been assigned. As promised, several ammo crates stood along the inner wall, each holding multitudes of packs of various cartridges of ammo. And standing next to them, alongside a large power supply container, were two extremely long-barreled sniper rifles. Both snipers recognized them immediately. "Those are M99 Stanchion Gauss Rifles!" Amber exclaimed. At the same time, Skope was holding his breath in awe.

Gauss Rifles were a type of sniper rifle, considerably more powerful and more ranged than standard rifles, which made use of coilgun technology to fire, similar in principle to the coilguns of starships, just much smaller in scale. Yet even in handheld form, the M99s still had an effective range of four and a half kilometers, which was wide enough to extend beyond the borders of Centerpoint City itself. They could also deal far more damage to targets from afar, as their rounds traveled with a muzzle velocity of nearly fifteen kilometers per second. For a sniper, this gift was a godsend.

Amber and Skope both grabbed a rifle like children having received their best present ever for Christmas. Then they rushed over to the other side of the wall, eager to try them out. Both of them set up sniping positions right next to each other, and began to stare through their respective eyepieces. At the same time, Amber patched a signal through to Lemon Squadron and the other Greens and Yellows in Lime, so that she could update them with info on the battlefield as she and Skope watched from afar. "Hester?" she asked into her mike. "This is Amber Stone. Christopher Skope and I have set up sniping positions along the western side of the defense wall of the capitol district. We are ready to assist you, as soon as we have your location. What's your status?"

The response she and Skope got was a fury of gunfire sounds so loud that both snipers jolted in surprise. Then the sound of a huge explosion on the other end of the transmission made both of them jump again. "The shield generator is down!" they heard Patton yell from the background of the signal. "I repeat, the shield generator is down!"

"Take out the remaining Tangos!" Hester shouted in some direction, presumably at Patton. "_And someone deal with that goddamn tank!_" Another explosion, this one not quite as loud as the one before, accosted the mike on the other end. Then came the sound of shuffling, as though the mike on the other end was being adjusted. "Stone? Skope? You still there?"

"We're here and receive you," Skope replied.

"Me and the squad are near the border of the Western District," Hester said quickly. "We just got in. These shield domes the enemy is using are making things a pain in the ass, but we found a way to deal with it." Both Skope and Amber's tacpad screens were updated with a set of coordinates.

Both snipers altered the views of their rifles. "I see you," said Amber.

A gigantic battle was well underway in the courtyard of a C-shaped hotel building on the outskirts of the Western District. Surrounded by the three walls of the complex, a mish-mash of Greens, Yellows, and Purples were tearing the place up. Zooming in, the snipers could see the Yellows were Lemon Squadron, accompanied by the rest of Lime. Fighting on Lime's side were a contingent of other Green soldiers, numbering perhaps two dozen at a quick count. And they were all fighting an army of Purples nearly twice as populous, including a few contingents of enemy foot soldiers as well as two Warthogs and a Scorpion Tank.

"They've got their hands full, it looks like," said Skope.

"Let's help them then," said Amber.

Amber and Skope opened fire upon the Purple soldiers. At a speed of Mach 43, the rounds imparted shockwaves as they traveled through the air. Their speed was so great, in fact, that it seemed like only a bare instant before Skope's target, standing roughly one and a half kilometers away from him, exploded at the hip from the sheer force of the hit. He and Amber now fired in sequence, each sniper letting off a round right after the other did. The back of the Purple lines suddenly began to expire quite quickly. The enemies began to run for cover, but not quickly enough to escape the autotargeting of the M99s. As the hits were about one second apart (with both of them firing), it took about thirty seconds to take out most of the Purple infantry. However, that still left the tank. They were in the process of wearing the tank down with successive shots to its armor when Wren, on the ground, boarded the tank, ripped open its canopy, and assassinated the driver. After that it was simple cleanup, to get rid of the stragglers.

Once the last enemy in the area had been felled, Ryan radioed the snipers. "Holy shit guys, are those M99s you're using? Because what just happened…that was pretty fucking awesome!"

"A gift from the Grand General," Skope stated proudly.

"Why not just have you guys do all the work for us?" Kenny asked. "You got all the infantry!"

"Seventeen kills," said Amber.

"I only got sixteen," said Skope in disappointment. Then he resolved: "I'll do better next time."

"We can't rely just on the snipers," Jess reminded Kenny. "We had to take out the shield generators first, so that the enemy could be hit."

"Oh yeah that's right!" shouted Kenny. "Otherwise no one can take out the enemies."

"Thanks anyways for your support," said Lieutenant Moora through COMs to Skope and Amber. "I'm not sure we would've made it out of that alive if you hadn't intervened."

"Are we still in the clear?" Deryn asked the snipers.

"You are at the moment," said Amber. "It looks like most of the fighting is further west. Take a left out of the courtyard."

Wren, now driving the hijacked tank, led the group as they departed the hotel building. The rest of the group, including Lemon, Lime, and the Green contingent fighting alongside them, followed the tank in a kind of mob formation. After the courtyard stretched a highway that went past the hotel. Following Amber's directions, the group took the left (western) path down the highway. Abandoned and crashed civilian cars were everywhere. Wren had to steer the tank meticulously around many of the cars, since it might possibly have ruined the treads to take the tank over them. Scanning ahead through his eyepiece, Skope scouted ahead of the group by a few hundred meters. Everything was clear for a while…until he came upon a most unusual looking group. He informed Amber, and soon she was looking at the same sight as well.

A band of objects was traveling down the freeway, towards Lime and company. They were indigo in color, and very oddly shaped, with curved surfaces all over. They were presumably vehicles, because they all had seats with consoles, upon which Purple soldiers were sitting. What was particularly odd about them was the fact that they all levitated slightly off of the ground, and their movement was a steady drift. There were two kinds of object/vehicle things that Skope could make out. The first was very large, perhaps ten meters long and three high, and had a very bulbous appearance that made the vehicle look extremely bulky. At its center was a chassis, which Skope guessed held the cockpit of the vehicle. The top of the vehicle hosted a contraption that stuck out with two appendages, and looked reminiscent of a very large turret. The second vehicle was far smaller, more comparable to a Mongoose in size than anything else. It had two giant wing-like appendages that stuck out from the main body. The driver's seat was placed at the back of the vehicle, and at the center of the front two smaller appendages poked out, which were plainly another kind of turret.

"What the heck are those?" Amber wondered aloud. "More new inventions of the Purple Army?" She thought over it a moment and corrected herself. "No, that can't be. Even the shield domes they have don't look as strange was what I'm seeing here."

"What're you looking at?" Hester enquired over COMs.

"Some enemy vehicles heading towards you, half a click ahead and closing," said Skope. "It's just that…they look really weird. They bear no resemblance to any technology I've ever seen before." He uploaded a video of the sight to the heads-up displays of the rest of Lime.

"I can't even discern how these things operate," said Clair as she looked at the feed.

"Strangest looking vehicles I've ever seen, for sure," said Kevin.

That was when Nome patched into the conversation, from across the city. "Mmmm, I know what these are," said the Medic.

"You _do?_" Kenny asked. "Are they from your homeworld, Nome? Because I always suspected that you're an alien."

"What do you mean?" Nome asked in confusion.

"Never mind," said Kenny. "Stupid joke."

"I encountered the designs of these vehicles during my time working at Avalanche Base," Nome explained. "In certain ruins on various worlds were uncovered ancient artifacts, presumably of an alien civilization."

"I was right about the alien part?" Kenny interrupted. "Seriously?"

"I took part in the effort to reverse engineer the artifacts," Nome continued. "The knowledge of these artifacts has long been known, and turned into advantages for our Army. Modern day navicomputers for starships, quantum computers, biofaom. In fact, even the energy shields of our armor were made possible through the understanding of the alien technologies. Among the schematics and objects uncovered and brought to Avalanche were weapons of war. I have seen designs for the vehicles in this feed, though the technology necessary to create physical prototypes of them is still beyond that of the Green Army. It would seem that Vorennius has beaten us to it in that regard. I do remember that Roster Teth was a hotspot for artifact findings and ruin sites. It is likely that the Purple Army uncovered something there which has allowed them to construct and reproduce the alien vehicles, en masse."

"Fucking great," Patton commented.

Nome said: "At Avalanche, there were nicknames given to each type of alien vehicle found. In this picture, the large vehicle is called a Wraith. We believe that the alien civilization used them as tank equivalents, for they are heavily armored and attack by firing plasma mortars great distances. The smaller type of vehicle is more like a light armored scout, in some cases having the assault role. They are called Ghosts, and attack using twin cannons that rapid fire small blasts of plasma. They are extremely fast and agile. They also have a boost capability to double their speed. You must be weary of becoming rammed or run over by them. There was a third type of vehicle, the schematic of which was commonly found in ruins. Airborne vehicles called Banshees that can both rapid fire plasma bolts like Ghosts, and also fire large rounds of plasma like the Wraiths. Fortunately, I do not see any such vehicle in this feed. However, we would be daft to assume they do not exist in the Purple Army."

"Wraiths and Ghosts for now," said Wren. "Got it."

"Aren't these also the same vehicles we encountered in the alternate universe?" Jess asked.

"Oh, you're right!" Kenny shouted. "During both those times when we fought alongside the Clan of the Caged Watermelon, there were vehicles that looked just like this. Could the alternate universe be where the aliens originated from?"

"It is possible but not certain," said Nome. "Remember that their ruins are in our universe, which means that at one point the aliens lived here was well. However, I do not have enough information to speculate."

"Stone, how far away are the enemy vehicles now?" Wren asked.

"Next block," said Amber. "On the other side of the next sector barrier."

"I see them!" Wren suddenly shouted.

Watching through their eyepieces, Amber and Skope saw Lime and the enemy vehicles come into contact with Lime, Lemon, and the Green contingent. One of the Wraiths opened up its turret, which blossomed like a glowing flower, and released a glob of plasma the size of a small car at the metallic barrier cutting off the highway. The barrier melted away as though it wasn't even there. The ball of plasma continued on through, landing atop an abandoned civilian car on the other side, and meted that as well, sending white hot metal spattering everywhere. The Greens, still on foot, had to scatter out of the way to avoid the blast of molten metal.

Wren fired the tank's cannon at one of the Wraiths. The first shot sent the Wraith drifting backwards a bit, but the alien vehicle survived. Its plasma mortar was glowing, indicating that it was powering up for another shot. Wren fired a second time, this time at the chassis, and the Wraith darkened all of its lights…then exploded.

Meanwhile, the Ghosts had opened fire with their automatic plasma turrets. The Greens and Yellows had to take cover behind the abandoned cars. The plasma rounds hit the cars, though fortunately were not powerful enough to melt their metal. Skope and Amber fired from their positions at the drivers of the Ghosts. The assault vehicles powered down and dropped to the ground as their drivers fell out of them. With the enemy's front lines lessened, the Green infantry moved out of cover and began sprinting forward.

"Climb onto the back of the Wraith and toss a grenade into its engine," Nome advised over the COMs. One of the Green soldiers took the advice to heart. They made a dive roll, hoisted themselves into the back of a Wraith, and let go of a fragmentation grenade. Another explosion resulted as the Green summersaulted away from his kill. Skope and Amber also decided to heed Nome's advice, but their interpretation involved firing M99 rounds into the backs of the Wraiths as soon as they had been goaded to turn around. This also caused Wraiths to explode.

"What can a sniper rifle not do?" the two snipers heard Hearts exclaim over the COM.

"It can't do this!" Ryan shouted as he loosed a rocket, which honed in on one of the remaining Ghosts and blew it to smithereens. That was the moment what he realized Skope and Amber had also been exploding things. "Actually, I guess sniper rifles and rocket launchers can do the same things, with regards to blowing shit up," he then revised. "They just do so in different ways."

"How very poetic," Patton retorted.

Back on the defense wall, Skope and Amber were competitively taking out the remaining enemy Ghosts. "Twelve!" Skope shouted

"Thirteen!" exclaimed Amber.

With precision, Skope took out two, one right after the other. "Fourteen! I'm still ahead!"

Amber fired a round which went through two Ghosts in a line. "Fifteen!"

Skope searched for another enemy to master that tally…only to discover that there were no enemies. Amber had just taken out the last two of them. He felt amber's gauntlet clap over his backplate. "Oh, so close! One behind, Sniperbutt. Too bad."

"The battle's not over yet," he replied slowly. "I'll get more." As amazing as it seemed, he now had a reason to want the siege of his Army's capitol city to be drawn out.

Down on the highway, Lime Squadron and the Green company alongside them pressed forwards down the road. They didn't come upon any enemies for quite awhile. On all sides they could hear the sounds of gunfire (and therefore of battle) but it seemed as though the Purples either had little interest in using the highway, or had moved on. From the site of their battle with the alien vehicles, they traveled for perhaps a kilometer west, until finally they were had arrived at their destination: the center of the battle in the Western District.

Just off of the highway was what had used to be a public park. Yet now, nearly all of the trees had been felled, and the site had been converted into a gigantic field of battle. On one end sat a series of firebases from which multitudes of Greens, all in various vehicles, stormed towards the other end of the park. The opposite side of the site had been completely taken over by the Purples. An army of alien vehicles drifted forth to confront the Greens, and behind them, on the farthest reaches of the park's borders, could be seen a town-sized base of operations that the Purples were clearly using as their foothold within the city. Several Purple firebases made up the town of enemy structures, along with many other structures that looked to be of the same design as the alien vehicles. Apparently the alien-tech equivalent of firebases, these great purple fortresses were at least as large as the Green's structures, if not even larger. Altogether, the Purple structures outnumbered the Green structures at least two to one. Yet nevertheless, the Green Army sent its forces forward to meet the Purples. As they approached, Lime counted roughly a dozen Scorpion Tanks, thirty Warthogs, and an uncountable number of Mongooses with rocket turrets streaming towards the front lines. The other side, however, appeared even more menacing: in addition to a horde of Purple Warthogs, at least half of the Purple's main attack force consisted of the alien vehicles. The Ghosts and Wraiths were of course present. But hovering far above them was another type of alien vehicle. The crafts emitted subtle whirring sounds as they approached their targets, ahead of the main attack force. The crafts had two fins, one on each side, which had some kind of thruster at their tips. The main body of the crafts was covered with a long and curved canopy which completely obscured the view of the cockpit. Lime figured that these crafts had to be the Banshees that Nome had mentioned earlier.

As soon as the Banshees reached the Green's main battle lines, they suddenly emitted great flares of green colored light which rained down upon the Greens with terrifying effect. Wherever they landed, the balls of plasma generated devastating explosions which either severely damaged or outright destroyed any vehicles at or near them. The front lines of the Green's main battle force were almost immediately sent into disarray. Vehicles had to swerve to avoid explosions, as well as destroyed cars in front of them. This was the point when the Scorpions and Mongooses caught on. An upward hail of tungsten shells and rockets assailed the fleet of Banshees. Many were destroyed, though not most, for the majority of the fleet was able to swerve and perform complicated maneuvers to avoid the incoming rounds.

This was the point when the ground forces met each other. The Ghosts, Wraiths, and Purple Warthogs opened fire. Bolts of plasma and chaingun fire sailed towards the Greens, and the Greens responded in kind with a retort consisting of rockets, tungsten shells, and chaingun fire of their own. The intersection of the two front lines quickly became a region of intense explosions that lit up the surrounding fallen forest in a blaze of white and purple light. All of the Purple vehicles sported the same shield domes that the Greens had been fighting against since the siege of the city had begun. This made the exchange of damage between the two sides somewhat lopsided, though fortunately not enough to win the Purples the tide, at least not yet: most of the Green vehicles were smart enough to ride under the shield domes first, then take out the generators. However, the Purples still had the advantage that they could shoot from afar, which made the Green's task all the more difficult, as it required getting in close. Yet at present, both sides appeared evenly matched, for the axis of the line of battle seemed unmoving.

"Who are we supposed to meet?" Ryan asked.

"The leader of the Green forces here," said Hester. She briefly consulted her tacpad. "In that Firebase." The group sprinted towards the Firebase at the approximate center of the town of Greens structures on the eastern side of the battlefield. All around them, Green soldiers ran at full speed in the direction of the battle. The entrance to the firebase led down a ramp into the underground (main section) of the base, like a maw into the belly of a beast. The group had to hastily get out of the way as a set of Warthogs came streaming up the ramp at full speed, a Green officer in one of them screaming out orders to the other drivers at the top of his lungs. Once the vehicles had gone by, the group proceeded downwards.

The first thing they came to was a chamber that was both a motor pool and factory. Unmanned Warthogs and Mongooses sat around the room while a series of mechanical arms fitted parts together in the process of constructing more. As Lime walked by, more Green soldiers hurriedly entered the room, boarded the vehicles, and roared up the ramp to join the massive battle outside. Passing into the room beyond this, Lime and Lemon now came to the tactical room. Holograms of maps, most of them being of the park, were up all around the chamber. Officers moved back and forth between them, yelling orders into transceivers. Upon setting eyes upon Lime and Lemon, one of the officers strode over to them. "Lime and Lemon Squadrons?"

"Yup, that's us," Kevin replied.

"About time you guys got here," said the officer. "I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a battle for the city underway. You should all be out fighting."

"That's what we came here to do," said Patton. "Is it alright if we at least report in first?"

The officer sighed. "I am sorry, how rude of me. It's the situation, it's put everyone under a lot of stress, obviously. He extended his hand out towards Kevin. "Colonel Simon Brenko. I'm the commanding officer here." He then turned his gaze to the Green company standing behind Lime and Lemon. "And who are these? Reinforcements, I hope."

Moora walked up to the officer. "Lieutenant Rankev Moora, reporting in, sir."

"Speak, and quickly," said Brenko.

"Sir, my men and I were pinned down in a hotel complex near the eastern border of the district, fighting against one of the Purple contingents that had gotten through and was dangerously close to advancing to the Capitol District. Lime and Lemon came in, and helped us take them down. After we had removed all enemies from that location, we made our way here as fast as possible, to join the battle. We came upon more of those alien-tech vehicles, but it was nothing we couldn't handle."

Brenko nodded. "This is good. We need all the men we can get on the battlefield right now, and you've lessened the enemy's numbers in the process of getting here."

"Sir, what's the situation?" Hester asked Brenko.

"Things could be worse," Brenko said hesitantly. "Though the outlook has gotten steadily better since the _Grand Castellan_ came in and started giving those cruisers Hell. Before then, my men couldn't even go outside. The enemy was allowed to take territory in much of this district. A few blocks beyond this part is where their real main base in the city is: the Purple structures you see in this park are really more of a Purple outpost. But now that the cruisers are distracted, my men can take the ground, and we're finally starting to push the Purples back. They used to exist even further beyond this battlefield, but we managed to drive them here."

Jess coughed. "Wait, did you say that there's another Purple base beyond the park…that's even_ bigger_ than the one on this battlefield?"

Brenko nodded. "That is correct. About three times bigger. That's the spot where Purple forces first landed when the invasion first began. After we—hopefully—take the park back, I fully intend to hit the main encampment."

"Well it sounds like we've got our work cut out for us then," said Patton. "Let's all find vehicles and saddle up, everyone."

"Best of luck to you all," said Brenko as he motioned a wave and turned back to a monitor with a feed overlooking the battle outside.

The group was about to leave when everyone in the room was interrupted by the beeping of their tacpads. At the same time, several of the monitors shifted their views to an icon representing a priority transmission. "This is Captain Marillion Halcor of the _Grand Castellan_," said a voice not only through the loudspeakers, but through everyone's tacpad speakers as well. "My ship has been fighting the two Purple cruisers for as long as possible, but our shields are worn down, and we are terribly outgunned. We have to leave the planet to recuperate, there is no other choice. As soon as the _Grand Castellan_ leaves the city, the cruisers will no doubt turn their attention back to the ground. Everyone needs to get off of the open ground as soon as possible."

Suddenly, from the background of the transmission, came the sound of several people shouting. At the same time, a great sound could be heard from the sky outside, so loud that its vibrations could be felt even in the underground of the firebase. "It's come kind of particle beam!" someone screamed from the background of the _Grand Castellan's_ end of the transmission. "The hull is about to be breached!"

Brenko rushed over to one of the monitors and hit a few keys. The view of the monitor switched to the scene in the sky. Both of the Purple cruisers were firing long beams of brilliant blue light at the _Grand Castellan_. Clearly some kind of particle beams, the two beams had already bypassed the Green capitol ship's remaining shields, and were tracing lines of red hot metal along the surface of its hull. The two beams eventually focused on the back of the capitol ship, where its fusion reactors were located. Lime realized just in time what was about to happen, though there was no way for anyone to do anything about it. The back half of the _Grand Castellan_ exploded into a gigantic ball of flame, which sent a shock wave flying across the city. The front half of the doomed ship sank slowly downwards, creating a curtain of flame above it as it drifted down past the city's pedestal. Some seconds after the view of the ship had been lost, there was another great _boom, _ and it was plain to everyone that the time of the _Grand Castellan_ was over.

Everyone in the room stood in a stunned silence. Then, in the monitor screens, the two Purple cruisers turned the faces of their turret arrays back towards ground level, and Brenko rushed over to the main console. "Everyone, get under something now! Open ground is a death trap. Repeat, open ground is a death trap!"

Fortunately, having heard the warning when Halcor had been talking, most of the Greens on the battlefield had by this time made it into a firebase. However, roughly a third of the surviving Greens were still on the open battlefield. Brenko, along with Lime, Lemon, and the other officers in the room, all watched in dismay as a wave of metal slugs assaulted the battlefield from the sky. Starting at the front lines, and then moving quickly towards the Green town of firebases, the hail of death caused the systematic annihilation of everything Green on the battlefield. Row by row, Green vehicles exploded into pieces of flying metal which joined the rain of flack from the sky. Hundreds of lives were lost in a moment, and all the ground that the Greens had gained during the battle was undone just as quickly.


	40. Last Stand

40 – LAST STAND

The command room shook as the firebase was assaulted from above by one of the Purple cruisers. Items fell off of countertops to shatter on the floor. At the same time, the screens flashed with static, and the lights blinked slowly, the power being made to oscillate as the station shook. Most of the people in the room hid underneath the countertops, as was standard procedure during earthquakes, both natural and artificial. Inez and Mr. Boom, however, just stood in the center of the room, maybe because they didn't see room underneath a countertop, or just because they wanted to look tough: the others didn't know. Fortunately, neither weapons specialist was hit with anything over the course of the earthquake. The vibrations ceased after a couple of minutes. Everyone let out breaths, the group as a whole being grateful that that firebase had held intact during the barrage.

That was when Ryan had the audacity to ask the question: "Wait a minute, why did they stop?"

"Are you complaining?" Jess shot back at him.

"No, just wondering," said Ryan.

One of the transceivers at a console in the room started buzzing. It was from another firebase. "Purple soldiers are invading all of the firebases. Repeat, the Purples have sent infantry to take all surviving firebases! We can't hold them back." The sound of gunfire could now be subtly heard. "They've taken the motor pool—AAH!" The transmission went dead.

Brenko got up and strode hastily over to the transceiver. "All surviving Greens in the park, you need to evacuate the region immediately. The Purples have taken the battlefield and are attacking the firebases. They cannot be stopped. Repeat, FALL BACK!"

"Moora walked up behind the Colonel. "We're retreating?"

"Unless you would like to stay here and die," said Brenko. "The Purples have the open ground. We can't send anyone or anything out there without it getting annihilated by the cruisers. And now, according to reports you just heard, the infantry is moving to take our last refuge, our firebases…and succeeding."

Moora bowed his head. "Yessir…"

"Is there a back way out?" Hester asked.

Brenko nodded, then hit a key on one of the consoles. A passageway opened up on the eastern side of the room. As Lime and Lemon got up, they could hear a multitude of footsteps coming from the ramp entrance to the motor pool. The inevitable sound of gunfire was not long to follow. Several Green soldiers rushed into the command room and quickly locked the door to the motor pool. "They're here," one soldier reported.

Everyone in the command room made for the passageway. Behind them, they could all hear a great pounding on the door to the motor pool. Then came the sound of some kind of laser or drill, upon which the door fell to the ground like a cutout cookie, its edges glowing red hot. The residents of the command room were about a hundred meters down the passageway by this time. Their way was lit by dim florescent lights and surrounded by dirt tunnel walls that had been hastily cut when the firebase had first been erected at the start of the battle for the city. The walls were so close together that they were almost suffocating, and things were even more difficult for Jess, who was claustrophobic. But regardless of their fears, they braved on in haste, for they could hear the army of Purple soldiers hot on their trail.

At one point when the enemy footsteps seemed dangerously close, Brenko stopped and took out a handheld device with a glowing red button. Ryan barely had time to exclaim "Is that what I think it is—" when Branko hit the button, and the entire section of tunnel behind them became a cavern of roaring sound. The ceiling of that part of the tunnel then came down, converting all of the volume of that path into dirt and rock.

Brenko continued to stand, looking at what he had created with pride. "I wonder how many of them I took out with that blast. In any case, it should keep them off us…for awhile."

"We need to get out of here," Jess said through her teeth. The explosion had plainly compounded her claustrophobia. Realizing that it probably would be a good idea to exit the tunnel before Jess genuinely flipped out, the group made for the other (non-exploded) end. After traveling perhaps another hundred meters or so, they emerged out of the ground and into a forested area with a creek running past. Jess was the first to reach the main level, rushing out and then gratefully looking at all the non-enclosed space around her. "I thought I'd never get out of there!" she exclaimed through an exhale.

The tunnel exit had deposited the group at the eastern edge of the park, away from the sight of the gigantic battle and the free-fire regions of the Purple cruisers. Along either side of the park, the group could see many contingents of Green vehicles heading eastward, back towards the Capitol District. It then struck many in the group, how profoundly bad of news the retreat was. Though Brenko had had little choice in ordering the retreat, with the Purple cruisers putting the Green Army's back to the wall, the move nevertheless meant that the entire Western District was being abandoned. The Purples had effectively conquered it and driven the helpless Greens back.

One of the fleeing Green contingents stopped near the group and allowed Lime, Lemon, and Brenko's men to pile in. The next moments were spent traveling through the city. The Western District was now in complete disarray. From behind them was the near constant sound of explosions, and smoke from broken buildings wafted up from the western edge of the city to create a wickedly colored haze which began to obscure the sight of the cruisers. And ever present, like an audible but invisible phantom, was the presence of distant gunfire. As the Greens were retreating, the Purples were following just as swiftly, making sure to acquire the abandoned territories as soon as they presented themselves. And all too soon, they came to the defensive wall surrounding the Capitol District.

"Hey look, they're back," said Amber over the radio, though she was talking to Skope. "But they're returning in no fashion that bodes well."

Skope said to those down below: "Hey guys, what the hell is going on? I heard that my Army is retreating from the entire Western District."

"That is correct," Brenko. "When the _Grand Castellan_ went down, our ground forces had no defense against those damn cruisers. Now that they control the ground, and there are so many Purple forces already in the city, it's just…impossible…to keep them at bay."

"We'll need to hold them at the defense wall," said Hearts. "We can't let them get to the Capitol District.

"No, we can't," said Kevin. "This…I think this could well be our last stand."

Now Nome came in over the radio. "Actually, I believe I have devised something to aid us in this defense."

"Anything will help at this point," said Kevin.

"I have set up ion emitters along the perimeter of the wall, and hooked all of them to the power grid of the city," Nome continued.

"You did _what?_" Brenko shouted into his mike. "And for that matter…who are you?"

"I am Nome."

"Nome who?"

"I am a First Class Medic in rank, but my profession extends to quantum physics."

"Do you have a last name…Nome?"

"I am Nome Achentaughtensheloem Londontokyoparis."

Brenko coughed. "I'm sorry I asked. So um, what's this about the power grid?"

"Mmmmmmmm, the power grid, yes. As I explained previously, I have hooked up thirty-six ion emitters into it."

"Please explain to me why you did that."

"I think it will be better if I show you. Hitting the switch now."

Before Brenko had a chance to object, a humming sound came from the other end of the mike. Perhaps three seconds later, the top of the defense wall began to glow, and the sky above the Capitol District flashed a brilliant golden hue, like lightning with an area effect. But when the light subsided, a great transparent dome was in its place. The dome, a great spectacle of interlocking hexagons that shimmered in the air, extended over the entire Capitol district, with its perimeter being along the defense wall, where the group could see points of light that could only be the ion emitters.

Brenko turned off his mike, turned to everyone else, and said: "I don't know where you found this guy, but he's a fucking genius!" Indeed, many of the Greens who had gathered around the wall had begun to clap. An energy shield protecting the Capitol District was exactly what was in order, for it would make things enormously more manageable in the task of holding off the Purple Army.

The vehicles pulled up at the wall, and everyone got out. Lime and Lemon took the elevator to the top of the defense wall. Along the ramparts, at the outer edge of the wall, rose the transparent golden membrane that was the shield dome. The group traveled down the perimeter, until the finally came to two familiar soldiers. Skope and Amber looked up from their M99's, then ran over. "Guys!" Skope greeted.

"Now we all get to go through a last stand together," said Patton. "Should be fun."

Looking down below, Lemon and Lime watched the last of the Green refugee soldiers arrive. Mongooses, Warthogs, and Scorpion Tanks all came to the wall in multitudes. Behind them in the distance, and coming ever closer, were the sounds of gunfire and explosions, as well as the ominous smoke from destroyed buildings. When the stream of Greens eventually did begin to lessen, the group analyzed the troops they had to work with.

"I estimate three thousand," said Deryn.

Hester nodded. "A fair amount for a battle…but it won't be enough to hold off the Purples."

"They can't possibly make it through the wall," said Jess. "I mean, it's so freaking thick."

"I would not be so certain of that," said Nome over the radio. "For we have already seen the horrors created by their new alien technologies. We do not know what else they may have in store for us. They have never been known to be unprepared."

"We'll need as many infantry as we can find atop the wall," said Skope. "M99's are nice, but two of them won't do diddly shit against a force of twenty thousand Purples."

"I believe I can help with that," said another voice over the radio. It was the Grand General. "These are the most reinforcements I can afford to spare to defend the wall. Make the most of them."

"We will, sir," Hearts assured him.

They had no sooner finished speaking when, up the ramps from the Capitol District, marched in perfect formation a force of one thousand Greens. Once they reached the tops of the ramps, half of them used the elevators to head down to ground level to man any remaining vehicles. The second half spread out along the perimeter of the wall, forming a curved line that had every soldier looking out towards the oncoming Purple horde. They would be a great help, Lemon knew, but still not enough. Lemon had fought as a one team army, but they were specialized with advanced training. The same was not so for the vast majority of Green soldiers here. And in a battle of one army against another, four thousand against twenty thousand was never a good sign.

The Grand General spoke over COMs, to all of the forces defending the city. "I speak to you now, not only as your leader, but as your comrade. We are all united in this coming battle, and shall be united in an unbreakable bond, for we are the Green Army, and of the Green-Yellow Alliance. But make no mistake: this is our darkest hour. Many, if not most of us, will not survive the coming strife. But know that you are not just defending your lives, and the leaders of your army. You are defending this city…and its people…it families…its children. This is why we must not lose—why we _cannot_ lose! For we are not fighting for the sake of victory. We are fighting for the _future!_" Many of the Greens cheered as the Grand General finished his speech. Even in the face of the Purple horde, the speech had had the effect of pumping up the Greens, and many in Lime had to admit, it _was_ a good speech, if a bit short.

Then the alarm sirens began to blare, and everyone at the wall had to turn the attention to the impending last stand that was about to take place. "Battle stations, everyone!" one of the officers shouted. Interestingly, Brian was the first of the group to take action. He slid up to the wall, pulled an object from his utility belt, and put it up to his visor. "I will keep watch on the front lines with my state-of-the-art Day-Vision Goggles! Do not fear, I will keep our forces one hundred percent up-to-informidness on the battle down below!"

"Those are called binoculars," said Patton in annoyance. It was worth noting that Brian had actually stayed with the group during their battles in the city up to this point. However, he had done little else than say things like "Ooooo!" or "Ahhhhh!" whenever something exciting happened, such as an explosion. In other words, he had been basically useless throughout the entire battle thus far. Patton left Brian to oogle at the battle from his current position, and went to follow the rest of the group, hoping that Brian would stay behind.

Now that the Grand General's speech was over, everyone was rushing to their designated posts or vehicles. Skope and Amber had returned to their M99s, and were soon joined by Hearts with his own rifle. The rest of Lemon went down to the vehicles below the wall. There were many that were still unmanned (too many Greens having died already for all the vehicles to be occupied), and they mounted up with practiced quickness. At the same time, Clair joined the force of mechanics, to repair any vehicles that would need repairing. Nome, having finished maintaining the shield dome around the Capitol District, now began preparing his medical supplies, deciding that at this point he would be more useful as a medic. Mr. Boom and Ryan armed their respective weapons while Kenny decided he would be most effective at a mounted chaingun turret at the top of the wall. And finally, Jess took up analysis of the tactical feeds so that she could keep everyone updated on the general layout of the coming battle (what Brian probably thought he was doing with his Day-Vision Goggles).

Meanwhile, Kevin had absolutely no idea what to do with himself. As soldiers ran along both directions at the top of the wall, he could do nothing but pace along the ramparts. He had paced a distance of perhaps a hundred meters when he was suddenly assaulted by a group of three Green officers. "Kevin Guinness?" one of them asked.

"Um, yes," Kevin replied.

"Oh, we finally found you," a second officer panted. The three of them had plainly been jogging a while looking for him.

"What's this about?" Kevin asked.

"The Grand General has tasked you with the command of all forces stationed at and around the wall," said the third officer. "You will be leading the defense of the Capitol District."

Kevin just stood in place, not really sure how he should respond. This first reaction was to think that they were joking, despite their sounding dead serious. "There must be some mistake," he decided to say.

The third officer shook his helmet. "There is no mistake. As Lime Squadron is a special forces team selected by both the Green and Yellow Armies, it must therefore be someone from Lime who leads the defense, because no officer in Centerpoint City has the appropriate rank or qualifications."

Kevin shrugged. "Well, surely someone else in Lime is better suited than I…"

"Everyone else in Lime Squadron has their own designated role in the coming battle," said the second officer. "You are the last one left. It must be you."

Kevin began to giggle out of nervousness. "But…I can't…_command_…"

"You have to," said the third officer. "There is no one else."

"You really don't understand," Kevin stammered. "I played Starcraft once. I didn't make it past the third mission of the first campaign. I can't command my way out of a paper bag!"

The first officer took Kevin by the shoulder pads. "_The city needs you, man!_" he shouted. "Do you think any of us want to be here? Do you think any of us honestly feel qualified to deal with that's coming? We are all outnumbered, five to one. We do not have the means to defend the Capitol District. No one here is _qualified_, dammit!"

A change came over Kevin. He straightened up, collected himself. "Yes, you're right. I...I have to."

One of the officers sent a file to Kevin's heads-up display, which had been forwarded by the Grand General himself. It was a command overlay, not just for Lime and Lemons Squadrons, but a Command Link to all four thousand soldiers stationed at the wall as well. Hesitantly, Kevin opened the link over his brand new tactical feature, COMMANDCOM. Icons flooded the inside of his visor, each one representing regiments and contingents and stations and fleets of vehicles. His breath caught in this throat, and a sensation came over him that reminded him of intense stage fright. He knew that every single breath he released would be picked up by four thousand people. Never before in his whole entire life had he received this much attention. In fact, less than a week ago, his teammates hadn't even acknowledged his name. The very idea of commanding was foreign to him. Then he remembered what he was defending, and why he had to be the one to command. _We are not fighting for the sake of victory, _the Grand General had said during his speech.

_We are fighting for the _future.

"They're here!" someone along the wall screamed.

Kevin most sincerely didn't want to, but he knew that he had to look out beyond the wall. He took steps gingerly, like a child afraid to look under the bed. The edge of the wall loomed closer and closer. And what he saw over it scared him far more than any monster under any bed. A field of Purple vehicles stretched out in front of the wall, like some colorful new landscape. Off in the far distance, he could see the remains of the Western District, covered in smoke, flames, and debris. Among the masses of Purple vehicles were human and alien designs. Uncountable numbers of Warthogs, Mongooses, and Scorpion Tanks were intermingled with Ghosts and Wraiths. And flying up high in the sky, Kevin could see swarms of Falcons, as well as the airborne alien vehicles called Banshees.

"The enemy is now within range," said an officer standing to Kevin's left. He turned and saw that is was Simon Brenko. Brenko looked Kevin straight in the visor. "All out Hell is ready to begin, when you are."

Kevin looked back out upon the masses of Green and Purple vehicles. For a few moments, he had no idea what action he should take. An ominous silence took hold over the wall, the deep breath before the plunge. And then, because he figured it was the most appropriate thing to do given the situation, he pointed his right arm out at the mass of approaching Purples, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "_FIIIIIIIIIIIIIRE!"_

The space outside the wall became a lasting explosion. In quick succession, the cannons along the perimeter of the wall opened up with chaingun and coilgun fire. The fleet of Green vehicles zoomed out of the bays and began to exchange fire with the Purples in a fury of metal and plasma. At the same time, volleys of metal objects descended upon the Purple Army as the snipers and defense turrets spewed out rounds like hail in a grand thunderstorm. Vehicles exploded, aircrafts clashed and ended in flame.

But more awesome, and terrifying, than anything else, were the resounding battle cries of a total of twenty four thousand Greens, Yellows, and Purples. The sound drifted up with increasing intensity like a cry of the wind. It traveled to every edge of the wall and beyond, into the Capitol District, where the civilians of the city were indirectly informed that the battle had begun.

And so, the last stand of Centerpoint City commenced.


	41. Not Alone

41 –NOT ALONE

Lemon Squadron had taken to a pair of Warthogs as their means by which to enter the battle. Lemon's division was currently still in the motor pool. Within the large metallic chamber, roughly four hundred total vehicles, an assortment of mostly Mongooses and Warthogs, sat in a square 20 by 20 grid formation. Lemon's Warthogs were situated near the front. Facing the entire group of vehicles sat a great steel door that led out of the motor pool. It was currently still closed, for the charge had not yet begun.

Yet everyone was ready. Wren was at one gun turret, Inez at the other. Hearts and Patton sat in the two passenger seats. Hester and Deryn were the drivers. And Tom was enjoying his own personal rocket turret Mongoose. The other soldiers in the room were ready as well. Everyone was understandably tense, and the nervousness in the air caused the room to be filled with a rather dense silence. And then, all of a sudden, Kevin Guinness's voice came through the radio in a thunderous way, with a shout that made half of the people in the room jump was they were bombarded with sound. "_FIIIIIIIIIRE!"_

The Greens in the room must have taken that to mean "Charge!" for the giant door leading out of the motor pool and into the battle instantly began to rise. At the same moment, a torrent of vehicles began to stream from the motor pool, with Lemon at its front. As Lemon reached the outside, they were assaulted with more sound. Only this time, the sound was not from one source: it was from thousands. The Greens were yelling out battle cries, and from the other side of the field, so were the Purples. Ahead of them sat a great landscape of both human and alien vehicles, all of them piloted by Purple soldiers, which stretched as far as the eye could see from level ground. Yet the Greens were numerous enough to form their own landscape. Though not nearly as large as the mass of Purples, the Greens created a gradually expanding field of seaweed colored soldiers.

Referring to the battle cry that had started it all, Wren asked: "So, Kevin is now the commanding officer of the defense force? How the fuck did that happen?"

"Does it matter?" Patton asked. "I'm just looking forward to killing something."

Lemon's vehicles were now upon the mass of Purples. With not an ounce of hesitation, they sped towards the line of shield domes, soon passing through it and into the personal bubble of one of the Purple contingents. A series of Wraiths now faced them. Both Warthogs swerved, narrowly avoiding a volley of plasma that impacted the locations they had just been standing. Their paths swerved to either side and headed around the central Wraith in the enemy's line such that all of Lemon was soon behind it. Tom, in his Mongoose, kept close proximity behind Hester's Warthog. With the back of the engine of the Wraiths exposed, both Warthog gunners fired their Gauss cannons. The first volley was enough to overload the engine of the central Wraith. Then they managed to take out the Wraith to the left. But by that point, the other Wraiths (seven of them now remaining) turned to face them. However, knowing when to pick their battles, the two Warthogs of Lemon instead vroomed away from the alien vehicles, heading deeper into the Purple mass.

The next few minutes were more like a flyby of Purple people than anything else. A BANG to the left, a BANG to the right, and then down the center did their gauss turrets fire. Ghosts and Mongooses of the enemy exploded into little pieces of both sides. Lemon had rushed ahead of the main defense force, and so it was behind them that they heard a great flurry of explosions which signaled that the front lines of the two sides had clashed. Deciding that they had given the enemy enough of a distraction, and that it would be better to help at the front lines than to strike the enemy from within its mass, Lemon turned their vehicles around. In any case, the Purples had been doing everything in their power to surround the two Warthogs ever since they had begun their killing spree. Giving the Purples more opportunities to succeed was the last thing Lemon needed to do. So began the second half of Lemon's romp through the Purple masses, this time in the opposite direction they had gone in before. "I'm-a firein' my Guass Turret!" Wren shouted as more Mongooses and Ghosts exploded in front of the two vehicles.

Approaching the front lines, Lemon could see in the distance a field of destroyed vehicles which marked the location. Dozens of human and alien vehicles formed their own layer over the concrete, full strata of burning metal. A haze of fog enveloped the region, not so thick that it obscured vision, but just enough that it altered the lighting, causing the field to be plunged into dimness and expunging much of the daylight. At a quick glance, it appeared that the Greens and Purples were dying in equal numbers. This would normally be reassuring, but not in this case, where the enemy outnumbered the Greens by about five to one, therefore having many more forces to spare.

Then came a sound and sight which made matters that much worse. A smooth electronic hum from the sky, unlike those of the Banshees already on the field, directed Lemon's gaze upwards. Heading down from the Purple cruisers were another kind of alien aircraft. They had the same coloration as the Banshees did, except that they were much larger. Their size dwarfed a Falcon and rivaled that of most other VTOLs Lemon was familiar with. They were shaped like flattened tear drops, and had twin tails at the back (pointed) end, from which spurted constant white-bluish streams of light which were probably ion trails. Nome of course recognized the craft before anyone else did. "Everyone, beware!" the medic shouted over TEAMCOM. "Those are Seraph Fighters! Take cover immediate—"

One of the Seraphs released a beam of purple light which impacted over a distant contingent of Greens. As the beam traveled down to the ground, it quickly lost cohesion, morphing into a spray of plasma. Then there was a violent flash and a tremendous BOOM. Once Lemons' visors readjusted, they could see a rain of small vehicles flying outward through the air, along with red-hot bits of car parts. The Green contingent was just…gone.

"Oh shit!" Deryn cursed.

No sooner had Lemon corrected their courses away from the Seraph they had just seen when another one popped up in the distance in front of them. "BREAK!" Hester shouted at the top of her lungs. The space in front of Lemon became a blinding white aurora. Then their helmet's sound intake apertures were blasted with a painful intensity, at the same time their visor's display programs overloaded from the intensity of the light before them. Blackness followed.

* * *

Hearts felt more relaxed than he had in a very long time. He was staring at a sheet of grey. This greyness was interfered with by beams of colored light and pieces of metal. After awhile, he could hear sounds that went along with these lights and objects. He heard rhythmic booming all around him. _Gunfire, _he seemed to recall was the name of it. Hearts began to move. He discovered that he was lying down on the ground, which would make the grey sheet he was staring at the sky. Fog and smoke were all around him. Through this haze, he could make out a field of destroyed vehicles as far as he could see. There were also manned vehicles, which were shooting at each other and exploding distantly in every direction in which Hearts looked. Dead soldiers, of colors Green and Purple, littered the ground as numerously as the destroyed vehicles. Hearts had no idea where he weapon had had gone off to, because it was no longer on his back or in his hands. To make up for this, he reached down to one of the dead Purples. The Purple was holding an indigo colored device which was very oddly shaped. It was composed of two curved sections, the top one being the longer one and giving the device the appearance of the claw. The back of the top section contained a very small red pad on its inner surface which caused the device to hum when Hearts put his gauntlet upon it.

Now that he had a weapon, Hearts began to head in a direction. He didn't really know where he was going. He also had a hard time remembering what was going on. Greens were fighting Purples… "We fight for the future"….the image of an underground tunnel exploding. These flashes were all that Hearts had to grasp onto. And then, like the opening of floodgates, he suddenly remembered, and everything about the current situation returned to him. Centerpoint City was under attack by the Purple Army. The Western District had fallen. The Greens had taken their last stand at the wall surrounding the Capitol District.

Now that he remembered everything, Hearts resolved to locate the rest of Lemon. The last thing he had been aware of was the pillar of light from the Seraph. His tacpad was no longer working, its screen smashed in from the force of the explosion. His mike didn't seem to be functional either, so Hearts couldn't radio Lemon either. So then he looked around wildly, searching for Lemon, fearing that he would see the remains of the others. He did locate their Warthogs, which had not been scorched, but instead thrown a great distance by the explosion. But to his great relief, he saw no Yellow armored bodies. Both of the Warthogs were on their sides, and even with his armor on, Hearts was not strong enough to roll them over (they each weighed three and a half metric tons, after all). So with his alien weapon in hand, he began to search for other vehicles in the immediate vicinity that he might be able to use.

He had not wandered far when he heard the sound of a Warthog coming towards him. He turned quickly and saw a Mongoose with a Purple driver speeding past him. The driver didn't seem to notice Hearts. With not much idea what else to do, Hearts held out the alien device towards the Mongoose and pressed his finger down upon the red pad. The device began to hum vigorously, and a ball of green light appeared in the space between the tips of the weapon's top and bottom sections. The ball of light became slowly larger and brighter as Hearts held down the pad. He kept his finger on the pad for several seconds, until the device eventually released the glowing ball of its own volition. The ball of light shot towards the enemy Mongoose. It was quite large, Hearts noted, and he hoped that whatever it was he had just fired, it would be powerful enough to kill the driver.

Things didn't go quite that way, however. The ball of light ended up hitting the vehicle instead of the driver. And instead of blowing up the vehicle, the bolt instead created an electronic hissing upon impact, and the vehicle went dead. The Purple driver looked down at the instruments, giving them a smack with is gauntlet, then looked up and around in confusion. His visor soon landed upon Hearts. The Purple straightened up and got out of the vehicle. "What the…what's a Yellow doing here?"

"Give me your vehicle, and I'll spare you your life," said Hearts, holding out the alien weapon as he did so.

The Purple gave a deep bellowous laugh. "You're going to kill me with that thing?"

"Um…yes…" said Hearts. He pressed the pad again. Nothing happened.

The Purple let out an even louder laugh. "You used up the rest power supply on my vehicle! What a fool!"

"Stay back…" Hearts threatened, now holding out the device more like a club than a projectile weapon.

"Oh please," the Purple retorted. From his back, he hoisted what looked like a giant hammer, the largest hammer Hearts had ever seen, in fact. Its stick was almost as long as Hearts was tall, and the hammer itself was easily larger than his helmet, perhaps twice that size. _Oh shit, _Hearts thought silently to himself. The Purple hefted the great weapon up with both of his arms, then ran straight at Hearts while yelling at the top of his lungs.

Hearts dove out of the way, instinctively leaning off to the left. Yet he was forced to lunge so quickly that he lost his balance, tripping over charred pieces of metal and landing face first. Then he heard the sound of a battle cry above him. He turned himself upwards in a flash, and then rolled just as quickly, and the head of the giant hammer landed where he had been lying just a fraction of a second before.

The hammer dove straight into the ground, and as it did so, it released a ripple in the air around itself. At the same time, the concrete at the location of the hammer's landing was suddenly jettisoned into the air, as though a small explosion had just taken place. As the Purple lifted the hammer back up, it was revealed that there was now a crater at the spot where it had landed. However, Hearts had seen with his own eyes that there had been no explosion. So what had caused the crater? An instant analysis with his HUD allowed Hearts to discern the answer: there had been a subtle gravimetric distortion where the hammer had landed. Most likely, the hammer head contained some sort of gravity drive, which was intended to amplify its damage. Hearts also recalled one of the stories Patton had told when they had all still been at Yellow Base, about a hammer prototype he had used at Yellow Command. Could this be the same design, but taken from alien technology?

Hearts had to stop thinking at that moment, because the Purple turned, realizing that Hearts was still alive, and came for him a second time. With no practical weapon, Hearts got up and ran for the closest of the two abandoned Warthogs that the rest of Lemon had formerly been using. The Purple followed at a jog. To check distance, Hearts faced the Purple. That was when the Purple swung again, this time horizontally. Hearts moved his torso parallel to the ground in a limbo move, just barely avoiding decapitation as the hammer head flew bare centimeters above his visor. After the hammer had completed its swing, Hearts stumbled back, still under the momentum of his dodge move. He had to change direction, for the Purple was now strafing around him, like a shark circling its prey. So instead of trying to get to the Warthogs, he ran for the Mongoose that the Purple had driven in on.

Hearts knew that he had stalled the vehicle when he had shot it with the bolt of green plasma. He had to hope that it had not been rendered inoperable. The Purple was hot on his heels, and he sprinted to reach the Mongoose. He did come upon it before the Purple did. But he had not so much as hopped into the driver's seat when the Purple, now only just a few meters away, pounded his hammer into the ground, and the gravimetric distortions caused the Mongoose to flip over, spilling Hearts onto the ground. Hearts rolled away from the vehicle, to get away from the Purple. The Mongoose was now between the Yellow and the Purple. Hearts quickly stood up, just in time to see the Purple swing his Hammer at the Mongoose horizontally, like a bat. The force of the hammer, combined with the force of the gravimetric distortions of the collision, sent the Mongoose shooting at Hearts like a rocket. The Yellow tried to get out of the way, but dodged a hair too late, and the Mongoose impacted him in the chest plate.

Hearts tumbled over backwards, flying end over end in a 360 degree spin, and coming to land face down on the concrete. The air had gone from his lungs. He gasped, at the same time reaching out and pulling himself along the ground, trying to distance himself from the Purple. His vision was blurry, but he didn't need it to hear the footbeats of the Purple coming up behind him in a slow yet triumphant march. Hearts was barely able to turn himself face up. The Purple stood above him, his visor looking down like a lion observing its best catch of the day. "My my, look at the poor little Yellow all alone and helpless," the Purple said as he twirled the hammer in his gauntlets. "Where're all your friends? They've run off and died, haven't they, because they couldn't stand against the onslaught of my Army. In a way it might actually be good for you, because none of them will have to watch you die. You are my prize now. Good bye." The Purple raised up the hammer, and Hearts closed his eyes, preparing himself for whatever the feeling of death was like.

Then came the voice: "He is NOT alone!"

Hearts opened his eyes and suddenly saw Wren ascend the giant Purple's back like a ladder, then grab onto his torso plate's collar and raise a combat knife to plunge into it. The Purple stumbled back as his center of mass was suddenly shifted. Then he dropped the hammer and reached up with his right arm, his gauntlet closing around Wren before she could stick him with the knife. She struggled as the Purple lifted her up, and then the bear of a soldier peeled her off of him and flung her down as though she were a doll. She flew into one of the Warthogs with a thud.

"Wren!" Hearts shouted. He now had enough strength to get himself off of the ground, for there was now air in his lungs, and the shock of the Mongoose impact had mostly worn off.

"Get back down, you!" the Purple shouted at him. He lunged out with his left arm, which Hearts blocked with his right. The Purple reached down with his right arm at the same time, intending to grab his hammer. Hearts followed the Purple's reach with his eyes, seriously not wanting to have to deal with the hammer again. But where the hammer had landed, it wasn't there anymore. The Purple shifted his gaze from Hearts and looked down at the ground in confusion.

That was when they both heard the sound of humming from behind them. Curiously, the two of them looked to the source of the sound. To Hearts' joy, Patton stood there. He held the hammer in his gauntlets, and was humming some song about something called "banhammer". He walked slowly towards Hearts and the Purple, and knowing what was about to happen, Hearts let go of the Purple and jumped away from him.

Patten then sprinted towards the Purple, shouting "It's HAMMERTIME!" The first blow caught the Purple in the chest plate, taking out his large capacity of energy shields in a single hit and sending him to the ground. The Purple looked up at Patton and laughed nervously and held his hands up defensively. "Now, hold on there just a second. I think we might be getting off on the wrong foot. My name is—"

The second swing came, bringing the hammer down upon the Purple's helmet and sending blood everywhere as his body exploded.

Hearts dusted himself off, then looked over to Wren, and saw Tom helping her up. "I'm okay," she informed everyone. "Just got winded is all." He then saw Inez, Deryn, and Hester sprinting over to him.

Hearts walked over to Patton. "So glad to see you. Um, what happened? Where were all of you?"

Patton set the hammer on his back so that he wouldn't have to keep holding it. "Well, after that encounter with the Seraph Fighter, our Warthogs were sent rolling all over the damn place, and many of us went flying out. The rest of us were able to reconvene, but we couldn't find where you had landed. Your tacpad's signal wasn't there for some reason."

"Busted," said Hearts as he showed Patton his wrist.

Lemon had now formed a group. It was Hester who finished explaining. "After the six of us got together, we went off and, well, killed lots of Purples. And after a while, we saw you."

"So how's the battle going?" Hearts asked.

"Not good," Hester stated simply. She motioned to the wall surrounding the Capitol District.

* * *

"KEEP THEM BACK!" Kevin shouted into his headset. On his left side, where the edge of the wall looked out to the Western District and the largest battle he had ever seen, he saw a fleet of Banshees coming in for the kill on a contingent of Greens. All around him was the sound of explosions. He motioned to the Green contingent, and a squad of reinforcements moved into that location. He was confident that that region of the wall was secure, and was about to turn away, when a massive indigo colored shape suddenly swooped in through the golden energy shield. Kevin didn't even have the time to open his mouth and shout _Seraph_ before that section of the wall became obscured by colored light, and Green soldiers were sent flying through the air in flames.

"Take it down!" Kevin shouted into his tacpad.

"On it!" he heard from Kenny, who was on one of the mounted coilgun turrets. And a second later, the Seraph Fighter exploded into small fragments. That was one down, and hundreds to go.

His tacpad beeped. It was one of the colonels. "Sir," the officer greeted quickly. "The situation has worsened. Only two and a half thousand soldiers remain, on our side."

"And how many of the Purples are left?"

"Roughly seventeen thousand."

Kevin looked away from his tacpad, trying futilely to conceal his emotions.

"My men have done everything they can, but we can't hold the enemy back. Many of them have reached the wall, and…there's something else…"

Kevin looked back at the screen of his tacpad. "What is it, Colonel?"

"The Purple contingents that have reached the wall, they've begun to set up some kind of strange object." The tacpad's screen switched views to show the picture of a massive group of Purples situated at the very base of the wall, who were all surrounding an object. The object was perhaps the size of a large Mongoose, and shaped like a sort of pill or bean. Protruding from the surface of the object were black spikes that radiated out in all directions, and on the top center of the object was a blinking red light. Kevin had no idea what the object actually was, but he had heard of blinking red lights, and in his experience, they had never meant anything good.

Then the group of Purples began to run away from the object at very high speeds, and Kevin suddenly realized what the object was. "Colonel, we need to get that away from the wall before—"

Kevin's world became a flash brighter than anything he had ever before seen. The ground shook underneath him. His visor's adaptive tinting allowed him to see a few seconds later, and he glimpsed a nightmare. At the spot where the object had been located, there was now a massive crater and a cloud of smoke and dust. But the worst part was above it, where the wall had been torn apart. A huge gash now existed there, and huge chunks of stone and metal the size of buildings were raining down in all directions. The golden energy shield surrounding the Central District then flashed out of existence, the circuit of the ion emitters now broken.

The entire battle suddenly lessened in its sounds for a moment, as the Greens absorbed the news of what had just happened and the Purples realized, at the same time, their new advantage. It was as though the entire battlefield was taking a deep breath.

"Oh shit," Kevin cursed, which was unfortunately picked up by the remaining twenty five hundred Green soldiers.

And then the Purple Army charged for the giant hole in the wall. The river of vehicles streamed through the newly created passage. "Everyone on the wall, get down there and stop them!" Kevin shouted into his headset. Immediately, all Greens on the wall began rushing down the ramps, heading for the torrent of Purples that had entered the Capitol District.

That was when the Grand General contacted him. "Commander Guinness," said the leader of the Green Army gravely. "What the hell just happened?"

"We couldn't stop them, General, I'm so sorry," was all Kevin could managed to say. "We couldn't keep them from the base of the wall, there were too many. They used some kind of detonator on the perimeter." He then began to pant heavily. "_I don't know what to do! I don't see a way out of this! I don't know how to stop them!_"

"Steady yourself, Guinness," said the Grand General with a false tone of calm. "Yes, the situation is bad. The Purples are too powerful, and too numerous to stop. We can't hold them back, and we can't evacuate, because of the two cruisers holding the skies." He took a deep breath. "And we are alone. Alone, we shall all stand and fight to the bitter end."

"_No, not alone,"_ suddenly came a voice over the COMs of every Green and Yellow in the city.

Kevin stared at his tacpad in bewilderment. "What?"

"The Yellow and Green Armies are in an alliance now," Bradley's voice said over the communication system. "And us Yellows, we _never_ leave our friends behind."

Suddenly, a sound began to come from the skies. Coming down like great angels were three ships of yellow coloring. One was a capitol ship, the other two were cruisers. They all swooped down in unison and began to open fire upon the Purple cruisers. Particle beams and metallic rounds exchanged between the five ships.

"The Yellows are here," Kevin said quietly. And then, when he was sure he was seeing and hearing what he thought he was, he shouted: "The Yellows are here!"

Another sound had begun to resonate throughout the city: it was the unanimous cheer of the Greens, all rejoicing together that reinforcements had come, that the Yellow Army had not abandoned them. As the battle raged in the skies, a swarm of Pelicans dropped down to the city. All over the Capitol District, surrounding the mass of Purples that had just entered, were thousands of Yellow soldiers, who dropped out in contingents and immediately began to engage the enemy.

With the Greens from the wall beside them, they formed a new perimeter, this one within the Capitol District itself. Buildings became inhabited, barricades erected, and a storms of fire sent at the Purples. And for the first time since the battle had begun, the Purple Army stopped in its tracks. While the Yellows fired at the Purples from within the Capitol District, the Greens still on the wall fired down at the enemy from the other side. The Purple advance within the Capitol District began to lessen, unable to sustain itself under the constant fire from all directions. Alien vehicles crumpled, then exploded. Pieces of bursted Banshee rained down from the air.

"Sorry about the long wait, everyone," said Bradley over COMs. "Those two cruisers sent out an electromagnetic pulse on my station. It took us a while to get power and communications back, but just now we managed to, and the instant we did, we called in for ships of our own."

"Much appreciated," said the Grand General with obvious relief. "You may well have saved the city."

"It's not over yet," said Bradley. "But whatever comes next, we will all face it _together._"

* * *

The command dome of the _Avant Garde_ was filled with holograms of the ensuing battle over Centerpoint City. Vorennius stared in frustration at them. He had not expected Yellow Command to regain functionality for at least another hour. Yet again, the adaptive nature of the Yellow Army had been exemplified. Though the arrival of the Yellow ships was something he had not expected to have to deal with, it was still only a setback (though a major one). His forces had pushed through the defensive wall and into the Capitol District, but now the Yellow reinforcements on the ground were making expansion of Purple territory extremely difficult. Both of the Twins were currently occupied fighting the Yellow ships, so they were unable to provide fire support to the city, and the forces on the ground were not powerful enough to repel both the Green and Yellow forces together. Though he was loathe to admit it, the situation was now starting to look as though the Purple Army would not be able to raise Centerpoint City, only severely damage it.

However, there was still one prize the Admiral could claim from this.

"Computer," he said to the _Avant Garde's_ artificial intelligence. "Have you determined the target's location yet?"

"I have," came the reply over speakers. One of the holographic images on the central console shifted to show a space within the depths of the city, underground and far beneath the Capitol District.

Vorennius walked slowly towards the hologram and then breathed: "Excellent…" He then turned to a tall figure standing in the shadows. "Thane, your part has come." He pointed to the image of the bunker beneath Centerpoint City. "Bring him to me. Alive."

Nezilus Thane strode with elegance and quickness to the center of the room, and looked at the image himself. "They always hide, thinking it will keep them safe. Why do they never learn?"

"You are to teach the Greens this lesson once more," said Vorennius. "There is a dropship of special forces who will go down with you. It is disguised with the ident details of a Yellow Pelican, so you will not need to deal with resistance on your way into the city." He then walked up closely to Thane. "You are always the one I can trust to never fail me. Go now."

Thane bowed before the Admiral. "Yes, my master." He then strode out of the command dome, to begin his mission.


	42. The Admiral's Prize

42 – THE ADMIRAL'S PRIZE

"Eighty-three!" Skope shouted as he fired his M99 sniper rifle at the huge mass of Purples inside the Capitol District.

"Eighty-four!" Amber responded.

"Eighty-four!" shouted Skope.

"Eighty-five!" said Amber.

"How're you always one kill ahead of me?" Skope protested.

Amber shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe you're just slow."

One of the Yellow officers called in over radio. "We are almost ready to launch another volley. Just give the call, we'll release it."

"Copy," said Amber.

At that moment, another platoon of Purple vehicles burst through the stadium-sized hole in the perimeter wall of the Capitol District. At once, the Yellows and Greens on the ground opened fire with their automatic weapons. Meanwhile, the two snipers above watched the battle, and waited until the Purples were in just the right spot.

"Fire!" Skope shouted.

From along the top of the perimeter wall, a series of mounted gauss cannons released their loads. The flurry of lead slugs rained down upon the unsuspecting Purples, and in the next instant the group of indigo vehicles erupted with many explosions. Once the smoke had cleared, Skope made a rough estimation that half the vehicles in the platoon had been taken out. "Prepare another load," he ordered the Yellow officer.

The next transmission that came in through his radio was not from the Yellow officer, however. It was from the Grand General. "Sir?" Skope asked. "What news?"

"I copy you, Commander Guinness," said the Grand General. "I am on my way up to the surface immediately, and I commend you on your ability to make the Capitol District safe once again."

"Um, _excuse me?_" Skope asked in confusion. "Sir? Hello?" But the Grand General didn't seem to hear him. Skope looked over at Amber, and saw that her visor was wearing the same expression of confusion as his. Skope immediately radioed Kevin.

"Skope!" Kevin greeted. "What's up?"

"Did you radio the Grand General telling him that it was safe to come up to ground level?" Skope asked bluntly.

"_What?"_ Kevin almost shouted, taken slightly aback. "What do you mean?"

Amber explained: "We all just got a transmission from him over TEAMCOM saying that he had gotten your message that it was safe to come up to ground level. Know anything about that?"

"…The _hell?_" came Kevin's response. "That's completely…that never happened. Why would I even do that?"

"The fuck if I know," said Skope.

"Something's very wrong here," said Kevin. "And indeed, the command overlay does show that the Grand General is in the service elevator, heading up to ground level as we speak. I'm trying to reach him, but I can't get a connection. Something's interfering with his COM. He can contact other people, but no one else can contact him." He then took a moment to think. "Okay guys, here's what I need you to do. Take a platoon of Yellow and Green soldiers with you to the place the Grand General will arrive from the elevator. I need you all to make sure that he remains safe. Because something is _very_ fishy here, and my gut feeling says that the Grand General could be in danger. I mean, if no one can contact him, then who was it who told him it was safe to come to ground level? I'm seriously not liking this."

"We copy," said Amber.

As soon as their conversation with Kevin was ended, the commander sent two Alliance platoons, one Green and one Yellow, to travel along with Skope and Amber to the elevator shaft. Skope contacted the Yellow officer in charge of the coilgun volleys and had him take command of the defense of that section of the wall in Skope and Amber's absence. Then the two of them met up with the Green and Yellow platoons, and made for the elevator entrance.

The quickest way was along the ramparts of the top of the perimeter wall, so Amber, Skope, and the two platoons got into a fleet of Mongeese and sped off. The ride took them several minutes, for the Capitol District was the largest section of a very large city, and after a few moments it became obvious that they were not going to make it to the elevator entrance before the Grand General reached the surface. The group soon turned off of the perimeter wall and headed towards the heart of the Capitol District. It was this part of the city which contained the largest structures, skyscrapers that were probably the tallest on the planet (since Centerpoint City was likely the only big city on this war torn planet). Nearly all the skyscrapers were still standing, and Skope was grateful that the Purple's invasion of the Capitol District had not come so far as to endanger these buildings.

Finally, the group came within visual range of the elevator entrance. The doors opened, and a group emerged from the structure. It was the Grand General and his elite guard. And sitting right outside was a Yellow Pelican. Amber zoomed in with her visor's HUD and scanned the ID tags of the Pelican. "That's interesting," she thought to herself aloud. "That Pelican is from Yellow Command. And roughly an hour ago, it was logged in by the station's personnel as…_missing!_" She straightened in her seat as she rode. "Skope, that is a stolen Pelican! We have to stop the Grand General from getting on it right now!" The Mongeese were traveling at top speed, but there was still a lot of street between them and the Grand General.

Off in the distance, the Grand General and his elite guard approached the stolen Pelican. The ramp slid down, and several soldiers wearing Yellow armor walked out. The Grand General approached them with the Lord Commander of the elite guard at his side. One of the imposter Yellows shook the Grand General's hand, and then the Lord Commander's. It was while the Lord Commander was making use of his right hand in this way, when another one of the imposter Yellows walked up behind the Lord Commander, pulled out a magnum, and shot him in the back of the helmet.

The other members of the elite guard had their weapons out in the briefest fraction of a second, but automatic fire from within the Pelican's passenger bay assaulted all of them, stripping their shields. The imposter Yellows, already surrounding the elite guard, finished them off with headshots before they could do anything. It was at this point that roughly half a dozen Purples emerged from the passenger bay. The Grand General, swiveling his helmet wildly as he watched his guardsmen fall, still hadn't realized exactly what was going on. The imposter Yellows kicked him in the shins, causing him to drop to his knees.

A seventh Purple emerged from the Pelican's passenger bay. This soldier's armor was much darker than that of the other Purples, almost black but for a small colored hue. He was also extremely tall, probably almost two and a half meters in his armor, and so thin that his appearance was reminiscent of a long rubber band. He moved with extreme grace, like a cat, as he strode towards the Grand General. It was at this moment when the Grand General saw Amber, Skope, and their platoons speeding towards him, yet still so far away. His visor sent off one pleading look at them.

And then the tall Purple picked up the Grand General as though he were some toy, hefted him over the shoulder, and walked lithely back into the Pelican, with the other Purples and imposter Yellows following. Skope and Amber finally reached the Pelican. The ramp began to slide up into place as the two snipers, and their platoons, got out of their vehicles and began running for the stolen Pelican. Skope whipped out his own magnum and began firing at the tall Purple. The Grand General was still in his grip. But the bullets pinged off of an energy shield surrounding the VTOL. The tall Purple's visor was the last thing Skope and Amber saw before the Pelican lifted off from the ground and sped off into the sky, heading for one of the Purple cruisers.

Skope and Amber gradually decreased their sprinting speed as they watched the stolen Pelican escape. Skope slowed to a stop and sank to his knees. "They got away," he mumbled.

Amber stopped beside him. "Oh God, Skope, I'm so sorry."

"They got away with the Grand General!" Skope shouted, at no one in particular.

Amber took the trouble of radioing in to Kevin. "I have some really bad news."

"Oh God, what happened?" Kevin asked.

It was Skope who answered, though he took in a very long, deep breath before he did so. "The Grand General…has been abducted by the Purple Army."

It was a rare thing to hear the ever polite Kevin curse. Yet he did so, multiple times.

"I…I couldn't stop them," Skope continued. "We were too far away. I didn't get there in time.

Another voice came in over the COMs. It was Nome. "Has the Grand General been taken to one of the Purple cruisers?" the medic asked.

"Yes," said Amber. "The pelican took off for one immediately. She studied the sky for a moment, zooming in on a part of it through the scope of her sniper rifle. "The _Edge of Glory._ That's the ship that the stolen Pelican headed towards. That must be where the Purples intend on keeping him."

"Mmmmmmmmm," said Nome. "I believe I may have an idea."

"Anything," said Skope.

"I need you to go to the lab where the Quantum Manipulator is stored…and overload it."

"What?" Skope stammered. "But…wouldn't that send out an electromagnetic pulse what would stop all electronics in the city?"

"It will also temporarily paralyze all nearby ships," said Nome.

Skope now knew exactly what Nome was planning. "We can bring down the _Edge of Glory!_"

"I dunno," said Kevin. "There is tremendous risk in doing this. For one thing, it will require the Yellow ships to temporarily leave the city so that they don't get caught in the blast. We will lose their protection while the Quantum Manipulator charges up."

Amber shrugged. "Is it worth getting back the leader of your Army? It's kind of your call."

A nervous ten seconds went by while Kevin thought about it. Then he said: "Alright, the plan is a go. Skope, Amber, get to the Quantum Manipulator now. Nome, rendezvous with them. They will need your expertise. I will be notifying the captains of the Yellow ships what we're going to do, and let them know that they need to head out of the city."

"I copy," said Skope. He and Amber got on their Mongeese and headed for the Southern District, where the lab containing the Quantum Manipulator was located. The platoons that had been following them were sent back to the perimeter wall, since they had done everything they could for the Grand General at this point, and would be more useful defending the city.

The trip through the Southern District took the better part of five minutes. The parts of the city that weren't a part of the battle took magnitudes less time to travel through, especially since nearly all of the streets had been evacuated. Up above the city, the five starships continued to hammer away at each other. It appeared that no ship had taken any permanent damage yet, as no energy shields had been depleted. But the battle was no less intense. Reverberations of sound were loud enough to make the streets vibrate subtly. But then the slowly subsided, for the Yellow ships were now beginning to pull away and head back into the atmosphere. For just as Kevin had said he would, he had notified the Yellow ships that the city would soon be subject to a very powerful electromagnetic pulse.

Skope and Amber finally reached the lab complex. Nome was waiting in the parking lot, having just pulled up on his own Mongoose. The two snipers parked hastily, then got out and jogged over the medic. "The Yellow ships have already pulled back," said Skope. "We have to overload the Manipulator ASAP!" Nome of course knew this, and instantly began sprinting for the entrance to the complex.

Amber briefly stared back at the sky, and noticed something slightly odd. Though the Yellow ships had retreated, the Purple cruisers were not taking advantage of their absence. Amber would have expected both Purple ships to instantly start offloading more troops to reinforce the ones still on the ground. Yet the opposite seemed to be happening: she could distinctly see fleets of dropships heading _into_ the cruisers. She didn't know what to make of this, but didn't have any time to think about it either, because she had to run to catch up to Skope and Nome.

The three of them passed several hallways, until they came upon two great double doors, which opened up to the factory where the Manipulator was kept. They raced across the dirt floor, and then up a white incline which led into one of the white lab structures. And there, in the center of the lab, was the Quantum Manipulator. Skope turned to Nome. "Okay, how do we overload it?

Nome walked over to one of the control consoles. "We need to set up a feedback loop of the quantum states that the Manipulator exhibits. To do this will require setting up a photoelectric dome."

"What?" the two snipers asked in unison.

Nome hit a few buttons, and then a vacuum chamber came down from the ceiling, covering up the Manipulator. Nome then used the console to set up several electrically charged metal plates within the chamber, situated around the Manipulator. "And now, all that is left is a light source." He opened several of the supply drawers in the room, until he found a stash of laser pointers. He took one out, aimed it at one of the metal plates, and turned it on. The red beam didn't seem to do anything at first. But then the Manipulator began to change color. Its stable green glow was slowly turning lime colored, and then more like yellow. "When the Manipulator begins emitting wavelengths of red light, it will overload," Nome explained.

The two snipers just nodded. They had no idea what Nome was doing, but as long as it worked in the end, that was what mattered. "Oh my God," Amber suddenly exclaimed. "I'm starting to get a very strong reading from the Manipulator. There's a HUGE electric charge inside of it…and it's increasing!"

Skope walked over to one of the consoles and sent out a transmission to Kevin. A holographic image of Kevin appeared above the console. "The Manipulator is charging up. The overload is imminent."

"Good to hear," said Kevin. "Um, there's something you might want to know. The Purple Army is evacuating the city."

"It's _what?_" Skope asked.

"All Purple troops on the ground are loading into dropships and heading for the cruisers," said Kevin.

"But…why?" Skope asked. "Are they somehow detecting the Manipulator charging up?"

"That is unlikely," said Nome from behind him. "The Manipulator will not send feedback until it overcharges…although when it does, it will send out a considerable amount of feedback."

"I agree," said Kevin. "The way that the Purples are retreating, it's more like…like they have what they came for."

"The Grand General," said Skope. "When the Yellows came, the Purples realized they couldn't take the city. So instead, they decided to make off with what they could."

"Is there any way to keep them here long enough for the Manipulator to overcharge?" Amber asked.

"I'm afraid not," said Kevin. "The Yellow ships have already retreated, remember."

The holographic image of Kevin then switched to an image of the sky over the city. The two Purple ships were lifting higher into the air, and all cylinders were glowing brighter, powering up. "Actually, I think they're leaving right now," said Kevin.

"No!" Skope shouted. "We'll lose the General!"

The two cruisers rocketed off into the atmosphere, leaving the city behind like a bad memory. On the ground, the Greens and Yellows were cheering, they day having been won. But they didn't yet know that their leader had been abducted.

"The Manipulator is fully charged," Nome informed the two snipers. "All that remains now is to send a final burst of energy into the Manipulator."

Skope walked over to the console, and hovered his finger above the button in question, the button that would send out the largest electromagnetic pulse in the planet's history. The Purple cruisers were escaping, but if the pulse was sent out at the immediate moment, than it might still stop them. "Here goes everything," he shouted as he depressed the button.

The Manipulator began to glow with extreme and increasing brightness, showering the room with light. The glow of the Manipulator itself was orange, and quickly darkening into red.

"Slipspace rupture!" suddenly came Kevin's shout from the hologram over the communications console. All three people in the room swiveled their heads to see what was going on. "More ships are entering the city?" Amber asked.

In the holographic view of the sky over the city, a giant ball of white light had appeared above the Capitol District. "Oh no," breathed Skope. The ball of light quickly decreased in size until it disappeared.

In its place was a giant mechanical hand.

"Good evening, Centerpoint City," came a most recognizable voice. It originated from all the video postboards in the city. The pictures of each postboard showed a fusion coil, sitting on a command chair. "As I am sure you are all aware, my plans for popping the fabric of the universe have recently been foiled by a most troublesome squadron. Lime Squadron. And the person who is responsible for the destruction of my pile, a member of this Squadron, is still alive. He is in this city, in fact. I am sure you know by now exactly what this is about…_Christopher Skope._"

Skope covered his visor with his gauntlets. "Oh God, not this again."

Vincent continued: "In the interests of bringing to justice the Squadron responsible for the destruction of my plans, and in particular, to bring to justice the person responsible for the destruction of my _pile,_ I am going to vaporize this city."

"My life has _really_ gotten out of hand recently," said Skope from underneath his hands, which still covered his visor.

From the video postboards of the city, the fusion coil laughed. "Now, I know that all of you are going to freak out and be like 'ahhhhh, I don't want to die!' Well SHUT UP! Bipedal idiots! I wanted to rid the universe of your lot, and came very close to doing so, but _no_, instead a certain Squadron had to disrupt my Hand, and then a certain Admiral had to _betray me_, when I needed his help the most!" The fusion coil took in a breath. No one yet had any idea how this was possible, but it happened anyways. "Now, I've had enough of you humans. So I'm going to use my Hand to destroy all of the capital cities of the human Armies, one by one. And since this particular capitol city has just been through a great battle, and also happens to have within it several individuals who I really want to see dead, this city gets to die first! _Christopher Skope, this is your end!_"

Behind the two snipers, the Quantum Manipulator finally overloaded. The room was overtaken by light, and then Skope's world went into darkness.

* * *

Skope was awoken by the sound of his shields recharging. He didn't know how long he had been out, but it probably hadn't been that long at all, since it was only now that his shields were recharging. Amber and Nome were also picking themselves off from the floor. Looking around, Skope could see that all of the electronics in the room had indeed been fried. The electromagnetic pulse had worked, apparently. He then remembered that a giant hand had been meaning to vaporize the city. "We need to get outside!" he shouted. "I have to see what's going on out there!"The three of them raced back through the complex. They had to heave open the double doors, since the electronics that powered them hadn't yet recovered from the electromagnetic pulse. Soon they were in the parking lot. All across the city, the lights had gone out. The entire city had been put in the digital dark.

Skope looked up into the sky, and saw the Hand. Small explosions were happening all over it, and it was slowly sinking down towards the city. It tried to rise back up, but its thrusters finally gave out altogether, and it fell out of the sky, crashing into the center of the Capitol District. A plume of dust took to the air, wafting up from the Hand's crash site.

"Well, we took _something_ down with that pulse, at least," said Amber.

"I need to get over there," said Skope.

Amber looked at him straight in the visor. "Why?"

"Because Vincent could still be alive," Skope said. "Look, Vincent has done everything he has because of me. And for as long as he lives, he isn't going to stop until he's destroyed me…or at least, until we've talked things out a bit more…I, uh, I dunno. I just know that it's time to end this extermination campaign that he has going against me…and the rest of humanity as well, apparently. It has to stop."

Amber nodded. "Right. Well, I'm coming with you."

Nome walked up to the two of them. "As am I. For the arguments you have made for needing to confront Vincent are valid, and there is no point in facing him alone."

Amber put her tacpad up to her visor, intending to radio the rest of Lime Squadron to let them know what the three of them would be doing. But then she remembered that the city was dark. "Electronics won't be back for awhile. Damn."

Skope nodded at the two of them. "You should know that what we're about to go on…it's my fight. You two don't have to come along. But…I really would like someone to have my back." He looked straight at Amber. "And…to see you."

Amber walked up to him. "Likewise, Sniperbutt."

Nome had crossed his arms and was staring out at the city. "Whenever you two are ready, we can begin the journey to the Capitol District."

"Right, of course," said Skope.

The three of them began walking slowly towards the Capitol District…and Vincent.


	43. Treachery of the Shadow

43 – TREACHERY OF THE SHADOW

Across the ring of lake from Centerpoint City sat one of the teleporter nodes, set within its respective forested ravine. The same creek still wove its way through the ravine, bisecting the territory, and the trees swayed in the wind. However, a thick fog now permeated the forest, covering everything in a suffocating grey. The fog was both smoke and dust, which had been caught in the wind and blown here from the city. The battle was making its existence known still, even after it had seemed to die down after the retreat of the Purple Army.

The teleporter in the forest flashed for a split second, and two figures, a Red and Purple soldier, now stood side by side with each other. They looked at each other for a moment, then began to stroll through the forest. "I hope we're in the right place," said the Red.

"We should be," said the Purple. "I personally set the coordinates for the teleporter, when we were in Green Base's com tower. I even had to bypass a high-level password request. That has to mean something."

The two of them finally came to the edge of the forest, where a cliff looked across the ring of water to the Green Army's capitol city. "Oh wow," said the Red. "Yup, I think we did choose the right destination after all."

"There's so much fog and smoke coming from it," said the Purple. "Plus it looks like pretty much the entire city is without electricity, because I'm not seeing any lights. I hope we're not too late."

The Red looked right at the Purple. "Are you sure you really want to do this?"

The Purple looked back at the Red. "Well this was all your idea, wasn't it? When I was talking to you in your holding cell, and you had just learned from me telling you, that the city was under attack, you said that maybe it was a good idea to help the Green-Yellow Alliance defend the city, so that you could prove your allegiance to Lime Squadron. And furthermore, the Yellows just left us back at base, having trusted me enough to guard you. What the heck are we supposed to do, just sit around while the most important battle in the recent history of the war is underway?"

The Red shrugged. "That's very true." He then looked out towards the water and the city once more. "It's just…the city looks like it's had the crap beaten out of it, and I can't help but wonder if my original plan might have gone tits-up by this point."

"Only one way to find out, isn't there?" the Purple asked.

"Eh," the Red exhaled. "Guess so. Where's the monorail?"

"Over there," said the Purple as he pointed. "Let's hope it still works."

* * *

"Get the main weapons online now!" Bradley shouted out to the rest of the command room. Light now streamed down from the ceiling and the walls. Soldiers ran frantically all over the room, there being so many things needing to get done. The red alert claxons were blaring, owing to the fact that the two Purple cruisers were now done with Centerpoint city and were now heading _back towards_ the Yellow station.

Power had recently been restored to the station. To do this, Bradley had had to send a team down to the station's reactors so that they could restart them manually. This effort had been complicated by some kind of spider droids, which the Purple cruisers had left behind after they had gone by the station. The fight in the reactor chamber had been a frantic one, but as Yellows always did, they made their own luck and managed to defeat the droids and get power going again. Once that had happened, Bradley had immediately radioed three Yellow ships that were in the same system to help defend the city, since Yellow Command hadn't gotten its weapons back online (and still had not even now).

"The forward weapons arrays are working!" Avery shouted up to Bradley.

"Finally!" Bradley exclaimed. "What's the status on the shields of the Purple ships?"

"Fortunately for us, they're nearly depleted," Avery reported. "When the city sent out that electromagnetic pulse, it didn't succeed in bringing the ships down, because they were too far away, but did succeed in harming their shield generators. Bursts of charged particles tend to do that."

"So I hear," said Bradley. "That's great news. We might actually be able to destroy those ships. Ammo?"

"Fully loaded, and easily enough to punch through the shields and hulls of those ships," reported Weapons Specialist Miles from another console.

"Everything is in place then," said Bradley. He sat down in his command chair, this time with the intention of relaxing and watching carnage. "It's about time for us to repay the Purple Army for what they did to my station. Target both ships, and don't stop firing until they are both gone."

"I copy," said Miles. Into a COM transceiver on his console, he shouted. "It's a go-ahead. Fire!"

All of a sudden, Avery got an alert signal on his own console. "Sir, stop, do not fire on the _Edge of Glory!"_

Miles instantly posted a Standby Command to the array crews. "We can't fire on it? Why?"

"I just got a signal from the city, which was actually sent several minutes ago, but was delayed with the EMP. It says that the Grand General is being held hostage on the _Edge of Glory._ We take it out, we lose the leader of the Green Army."

"Held hostage," Bradley breathed. "Is the _Edge of Glory _boardable?"

"It's going to go right past us at a high velocity," said Avery. "We could send some soldiers, but I don't see how we'd ever get them back."

"Dammit!" Bradley cursed. "Can't destroy it, can't board it. Well then, what're we supposed to do? Just let it escape?"

"I'm sorry, sir," said Avery.

"But we can at least take out one ship," said Bradley. "It is time for retribution for what the Purples have done." He pulled up a holographic view of the two Purple ships. "Fire everything at the _Edge of Doom._ I want it destroyed."

"Yessir," said Miles proudly.

The bridge room hummed with the sound of giant capacitors charging up from the bottom of the station, which reverberated up through the floor grating. After a few seconds, Miles reported: "Weapons fully charged."

"FIRE!" Bradley shouted.

The entire station shook from reverse momentum as the weapons released. On the holographic view, Bradley watched a hail of kiloton lead slugs travel towards the _Edge of Doom._ All projectiles flew straight and true, the vast majority of them impacting the giant spaceship on its starboard side, around its midsection. The _Edge of Doom's_ shields flared as it got caught in the barrage. Then its protection died in a violent flash. The remaining projectiles (most of the initial swarm) rammed straight into the ship. Pockets of steam could be seen venting into space. Then the friction from the slugs ignited the remaining oxygen inside the hull, and the vents of gas were replaced by explosions of fire. The windows on the outside of the ship lit up with bright orange light. At the same time, the titanium lining of the hull began to turn red hot.

Bradley watched all of this take place, having seen happenings like this many times before, but nevertheless relishing watching this one, as payback for the Purple Army's attempted genocide at Centerpoint City, not to mention the temporary paralysis of his own station. The midsection of the ship had completely lit up on the inside. The structural integrity of the ship was now at its lowest point, for the _Edge of Doom_ suddenly split in two, creating a duality of metallic bodies that had been the ends of the original ship. Fire, air, and metal debris spewed out of the cross sections where the ship had come apart. Then the rest of the ship followed suit with the first separation: the two halves each gradually separated into many more pieces, which floated by Yellow Command, right outside the window of the Bridge, many of the pieces turning end over end in the continuous motion of rotation. The destruction of the _Edge of Doom_ was now complete.

At was at this same moment when the still intact _Edge of Glory_ sailed past Yellow Command on its opposite side. The Purple cruiser didn't even bother peppering the station with its weapons, for the ship was clearly only focused on escaping…with the Grand General on board. With nothing else to do, Bradley just sat and watched the cruiser get further and further away. On the holographic screen, the icons of the _Edge of Glory_ and the _Avant Garde_ rendezvoused, coming together at the capitol ship's holding point. The _Edge of Glory_ slowed down, as though meeting the _Avant Garde_ to catch up on things. And then the two of them blipped off of the screen, vanishing into the vestiges of Slipspace.

They were gone, and so was the Grand General.

Of the three Yellow ships that had been perusing the cruisers, the captain of the capitol ship reported in and informed Bradley of what he already knew: "Sir, we have lost the _Edge of Glory. _Out ships were weakened by the electromagnetic pulse just enough that we could not reach full speed. It would seem that the Purple ships possessed more resistance to the pulse than we knew, for they traveled faster than our ships could keep up with, even though they were closer to the city when the pulse was released."

"Another surprise on a long line of them that have happened today," said Bradley. "Very well. I'll take the liberty of notifying the Grand General's Advisory Team, as soon as the city gets its electronics back up and running."

* * *

Hathrow Vorennius stared at his holographic displays with mixed emotions. He had been certain that Yellow Command would not know which of the Twins held the Grand General, and so would not have deemed to fire on either of them. Yet somehow, they had known. Perhaps it had been someone on the ground who had notified the station. The schematics of the city had shown, at the time of the Grand General's abduction at the elevator entrance, that members of Lime Squadron had been approaching the stolen Pelican's landing site. Vorennius had not intended for any of the Greens or Yellows to be aware that the call for the Grand General to come out of hiding had been a trap. They had turned out to be more perceptive than he had anticipated. In any case, it must have been those members of Lime who had notified Yellow Command of which ship was carrying the Grand General…thereby dooming the other ship, the now ironically named _Edge of Doom._ The Admiral made a mental reminder that, later, he would need to host a formal ceremony commemorating the sacrifices of Captain Thenriss and his crew.

After the Grand General had been taken, Vorennius had meant to have the _Avant Garde_ fire its coilguns at Centerpoint City, thereby reducing the region to a radioactive crater. But the capitol ship was too far away to fire quickly. The three Yellow ships had been trailing the Twins since their departure from the city, and the _Avant Garde_ would have needed to take too long to properly target the city, when stationed all the way at the edge of the planet's gravity well. On second thought, perhaps it was actually better this way. Instead of being wiped from existence, the Green Army's capitol city would now stand as a reminder of the newfound power of the Purples, and an example of what the New Order could do.

To the ship's computer, Vorennius ordered: "Once we drop out of slipspace, I want a shuttle prepared to transport me to the _Edge of Glory."_ Though Centerpoint City still stood, Vorennius now had his prize, the most significant achievement of the recent battle, which thousands of ground troops, as well as the crew of the _Edge of Doom,_ had died for: the Grand General, as a hostage. This was perhaps the best leverage the Purple Army had gained at any point since the revolution on Roster Teth. It would give reason for the other Armies to bring themselves to the bargaining table, not nearly enough to assure surrenders, but certainly enough to control the galactic battlefield, which would make it easier for the Purple Army to continue their conquest.

And soon, Vorennius planned to meet the Grand General in person, and violently thank him especially for what his Army had done to the Purple Army three years ago…

* * *

Skope, Amber, and Nome raced through the city. They were traveling on foot, since electronics were still down from the electromagnetic pulse. They had been moving for perhaps fifteen minutes now. They would have been exhausted, had it not been for the added muscle given to them by their armor. They were now at the south edge of the perimeter wall, which led into the Capitol District. Skope looked up to some Greens standing atop the wall. One of them nodded, and after a moment the great doors slid open enough to let the three of them through.

The inside of the Capitol District was more of a mess than the three of them had been expecting: the plume of smoke emanating from the crashed Hand created a dark cloud which obscured the sky. And also, bullet holes could be seen in the walls every so often. This was odd, because the southern section of the Capitol District had not been invaded by the Purple Army, that had only been the westernmost section, where the wall had been breached.

They got their answer a few blocks later. They heard the sound of footsteps marching towards them. Down the street was a platoon of Red soldiers. They were marching in grid formation, ten by ten, apparently just strolling the streets. "Shit," Amber hissed. "They must've come from the Hand!"

"You there!" shouted one of the Reds in the front row, calling over to the three members of Lime. They hid behind a corner instinctively. "Oy, I saw you!" the Red persisted. They could hear the rest of the platoon ready their weapons. "There is someone there, behind that corner!"

"_No there's not_," Skope shouted back in as deep a voice as he could manage. "Ow!" he then shouted in his normal voice as Amber jabbed him in the chestplate with her elbow.

"What are you doing?" the Yellow sniper whispered at him. "Are you stupid?"

"I knew it!" said the Red, responding to Skope's deep-voiced exclamation. "Come out, all of you!"

The three of them looked around for a way out, but the alley they were standing at the mouth of was blocked further on by a wall of garbage bins. "Where do we go?" Skope asked.

"Well, you've tried convincing them that you're thin air," Amber replied sarcastically. "Why not try to convince them that we're all cardboard boxes or something while you're at it?"

"I'm sorry!" Skope countered. "I thought shouting out something in a different voice would work."

"No, it's the part about how you thought shouting _anything _would work that gets me!" Amber retorted.

"We must focus, you two!" Nome said sternly from Amber's side. "We must think of something! Arguing will not serve to help us."

The marching sounds from the Red platoon were getting much louder. The three members of Lime looked around wildly, but could think of nothing.

"Hey!" shouted a voice from just outside the alleyway. The Reds stopped and looked in that direction. Two soldiers, a Red and a Purple, were standing side by side, blocking the alleyway's entrance.

"Is that Dudeperson and Chamealon?" Skope asked.

"Oh my God, I think it is!" said Amber.

"Hello, people!" said Guy to the Reds. "Do you have a moment to talk about peace?"

The Reds soldiers looked at each other. "What?" asked the Red at the front. "Who are you people? Is the Purple a prisoner?"

"No no no," said Guy. "We're from the Red-Purple Alliance."

"That dissolved like six hours ago," said the Red squad leader.

"Uuuuum," said Travis nervously. "We're from the…other one."

"What other one?" asked the squad leader.

"The, uh, Red and Purple Army's Dedication to Love, Happiness, and Peace," said Guy.

"Incorporated," Travis added.

The squad leader looked at Travis and Guy quizzically. For a few seconds, he looked annoyed enough that he might be about to order his soldiers to open fire. But then he suddenly said: "Tell me more about this organization. What does it do?"

"We…uh…promote peace…" Guy stammered.

"How?" asked the squad leader.

Guy began to launch into a spiel about how love, peace, and happiness were what fueled the war economy of the galaxy, and allowed the galactic war to progress was effectively as it was currently doing. It was the most ridiculous pile of crap that Nome, Amber, and Skope had ever heard in their lives. Yet amazingly, the Reds actually seemed interested. As he talked, Guy began slowly pacing down the street, leading the group of Reds along with him. As this was happening, Travis would periodically look at the three members of Lime and nod his visor in the direction leading down the opposite direction from the Reds. Taking the cue, the three of them crept out from the alley and crept down the street, moving quietly behind the gazes of the Reds.

Once they had separated themselves from the Red platoon by a few blocks, Skope said: "I can't believe that actually happened."

"Guy and Travis saved our lives, probably," said Amber. "I guess they both really are trustworthy after all."

"I hope we see them again," said Skope. "The two of them risked capture in the process of saving us. The Reds are letting them stand because they think they represent some kind of organization. Once the Reds figure out that that organization doesn't exist, Guy and Travis will end up in imprisonment…again."

"Yet they put such things on the line for our own sakes," said Nome. "It is good to know that we have found friends from such unlikely places."

* * *

Nome, Amber, and Skope proceeded deeper into the Capitol District. As they neared the location of the Hand, the frequency of bullet hole sightings in walls and in the street became greater. But fortunately, they were able to avoid more encounters with Red platoons (because now they knew there were Red platoons to be avoided). It was in the interest of such avoidances that they had to zig zag through some sectors of the Capitol District, to stay out of sight of Red patrols. It seemed that the Red Army had established a presence in the parts of the city immediately surrounding the crash site of the Hand.

But finally, the three of them reached their objective. They came to a high rise, a piece of concrete that jutted up from the city floor, and that looked out at the hand. Already standing upon it were many familiar figures. Jess, Kenny, Kevin, Mr. Boom, Ryan, Clair, and Lemon Squadron were all waiting there in a group. Nome, Amber, and Skope ran over to join them. "Guys!" shouted Skope. "You're all here!"

Hester explained: "Once the Hand went down, I guess we all figured that it ought to be the main objective. All of Lime Squadron has just slowly accumulated here. We've been waiting for you to show up, and now you have."

"Where's Brain?" Amber asked.

"We don't know," said Clair. "We lost track of him when the city was EMPed. He could be anywhere. I hope he's all right."

Patton shrugged his shoulders. "I think we have more important matters." He pointed out to the Hand.

The crash site of the Hand was a swath of cityscape that had been converted into one large round field. Tall skyscrapers which had once existed now lay as crushed ruins underneath the mass of the Hand. Rubble was strewn everywhere. And surrounding the Hand was an army of Reds, patrolling around its circumference. They had apparently gotten their electricity running again, because among the patrols were hoards of vehicles, including Warthogs and Falcons. The Hand itself was in similar shape to the skyscrapers it had toppled: pieces of it lay strewn everywhere, much of its surface was sparking, and virtually all of its lights had dimmed. Clearly, the Hand would never rise again. At the top of the hand, at the peak of the mountain of metal the great device now formed, floated a most familiar fusion coil, its core glowing red with frustration.

"Vincent," said Skope.

"We will go together," said Hester. "For this fight concerns all of us, and both of our Armies. This one last thing should be taken care of as a group."

The rest of the group nodded in satisfaction. Any weapons that needed to be readied, were readied. Then the sixteen of them strode down the slope, and into the artificial valley where the Hand was waiting. They all formed into one single line.

And then they marched.

Sixteen Green and Yellow soldiers headed towards the Hand. They did not travel hastily, nor with any ere of apprehension. Instead, they all walked proudly, knowing that as a group, they could not be messed with by anything that was thrown at them. The Reds noticed them almost immediately. The Reds sized the group up, then slowly began to advance towards them. Lime and Lemon opened fire as a unit. From all directions, Red soldiers began to fall. Warthogs exploded. Platoons fell where they stood. Falcons fell to the ground in flames. All the while, neither Lime nor Lemon altered their pace. They left a trail of Red bodies in their wake as they moved, and by the time they had reached the Hand, every single one of the Reds that had been patrolling its perimeter, had been defeated.

Once they reached the wall of the Hand, they finally stopped and looked around. "Holy shit," Kenny commented. "We're awesome!"

"We're not done yet, either," said Skope. "There is still one entity left."

"Yes, Vincent," said Amber. "We know."

The group walked along the outer wall of the Hand until they came upon a spot where the inner volume of the Hand had caved in, such that its walls formed a ramp on the outside which led straight up to the spot where Vincent was floating. And as a group, they ascended.

The fusion coil seemed to have no idea that his defense army had just been completely annihilated, for his focus did not waver from whatever it was he was doing at the top of the Hand. As Lime and Lemon got closer, they began to overhear voices. One was Vincent's. The other was strange, because in some ways it didn't seem like a voice at all, but instead a sensation that conjured words inside their minds, as if it were speaking through their thoughts, yet still had its attention focused on Vincent.

"I have done everything I can!" Vincent screamed in frustration at the other, as-yet unseen entity.

_You have failed,_ came the telepathic response. The voice carried a sort of malice to it, such that it came across as cold and invasive. The Greens recognized it immediately. It was the same voice they had felt in the hockey arena, during their first journey through the alternate universe. The voice had come from an inky black mass, a shadow that had slowly taken over the arena and then teleported the Greens into a Red holding cell. Sure enough, as Lime and Lemon crept closer, and their view of the situation at the top of the Hand became wider, they could see that same shadow hovering like an evil cloud over Vincent.

"I have only ever tried to bring about your vision," Vincent stammered loudly.

_I told you to destroy the universe, not to replace humanity with fusion coils. You have either misinterpreted or perverted my command to you. Either way, you are to blame for this turn of events._

"I tricked the Reds into building the Hand for you," said Vincent. "I launched a domination campaign over this world. What more do you want from me?"

_Foolish little creature,_ the darkness chided scornfully. _You impulsively took the Hand to the Halothrii Wilderness when I explicitly told you not to, simply to make an example for Lime Squadron. Then the Hand was injured by the firing of the artifact, which I had warned you that the failsafe would possess. So after that, what do you do? You limp back to me in your Hand and whine about what happened. Then I show you the designs necessary to properly fire the Hand. Yet even still you did not listen._

"It would not have destroyed the universe!" said Vincent. "It would barely even have dented it. Why would we bother firing it! You didn't know what you were doing."

_Do you take me for a fool!_ Vincent shuddered at the mental assault. _Of course I know what I am doing. Our overall objective is the destruction of the universe, but that is not the purpose of the Hand, or even its capability._

Vincent gasped. "What? But…why…Well then, what the_ hell_ is it for?"

_My own restoration,_ said the darkness. _Fire the Hand now, and I will bring you the retribution that you and your people so richly deserve. Once I have returned to my full form, a new era will begin, for my power will spread throughout all of existence._

"You made me build the Hand so that you could make yourself more powerful," said Vincent. "I should have known." Yet as far as firing the Hand was concerned, the fusion coil seemed uncertain.

_Who gave you all of your powers?_ the darkness asked. _Who was it who provided you with the means to launch this campaign in the first place? It was I, from the very beginning. I have only ever had your best interests in mind._

"I don't know…" said Vincent.

_I will fire it for you, then!_ shouted the darkness. The Hand began powering up, just like it had at the Halothrii Wilderness. Only this time, it was powering up much faster. The darkness had to be manipulating whatever functions of the Hand were still working in order to make it fire.

This was the moment when Lime and Lemon decided to make their introduction. "Stop!" Skope shouted as the group raced to the space at the top of the Hand. But they were all knocked onto their backs by some kind of spherical wave which passed through the air. A white colored orb of light shot into the sky and detonated above the city. Like a second moon, a swirling vortex soon appeared in place of the orb, just as had happened in the Halothrii Wilderness before. But that was when the darkness flew up from the Hand, rising like a phantom into the air, and came to surround the proto-vortex before it had gotten to be very large.

And then it swallowed the proto-vortex.

Lime and Lemon watched his happen, openmouthed. "What…the…fuck…" Ryan exclaimed.

Above the city, the darkness transformed. It changed from a cloudlike wisp and coalesced, condensing into a different shape. Within the next few seconds, the shadow more closely resembled a human figure in armor than it did some kind of cloud. The figure floated back down to the top of the Hand, coming to hover in midair perhaps a meter above the ground. The armor of the figure was the blackest thing that anyone had ever seen, for it seemed to suck in any light that touched it, reflecting almost nothing back. The figure's visor was tinted a very dark blood red which possessed an ominous glow, and the shape of the visor was a thick downward pointing V shape. One the very top of the helmet was a hornlike metal spike which jutted out both proudly and evilly.

"Alright, I have restored you," said Vincent. "Now bring my people justice!"

The figure chuckled, this time audibly instead of telepathically. "Yes, I am restored. I can feel my power regained! I am now just as I was before, and this time Aeon is not here to oppose me." He then turned to Vincent. "And I am afraid that you have now made your final mistake."

Vincent stared at the figure through one of his sides. "What are you talking about? I have complied with your demands. The Hand is fired. And you've said it yourself, you have regained your power. How is that a mistake?"

"It's simple really," said the figure. "I don't need you anymore."

"I beg your pardon?" Vincent asked.

"To be perfectly honest, your 'people' are a farce of this universe," said the figure. "Sentient fusion coils who live in piles, and no one else can hear them talk? I mean, how sad is that? Better not to exist at all, I say. You and your people were a means to an end, Vincent. Nothing more. I do, of course, plan to use the human constituency of the Red Army to further my own ends. But fusion coils? I'm afraid that your part in history ends here, Vincent."

If Vincent's core had been looking red before, now it was fuming with fire. "You horrible…you think you can just use me…and use my _people_…and get away with it!"

"I have been using you ever since you first met me," said the figure. "I laid visor on you and thought to myself 'Gee, wouldn't it be interesting if sentient fusion coils had telekinetic powers?' So I made it happen. End of story. You and you so-called 'people' are useless to me now."

Vincent lunged at the figure. Instantaneously, the right arm of the figure changed back into the shadow form, and an otherworldly phantomlike appendage shot across the space, stretching around Vincent. The psychic force field that Vincent had put around himself flickered out of existence, and the fusion coil began to scream in pain.

"My my," said the figure. "All tuckered out form a fight with a Purple Admiral, are we? Too bad. I was hoping for a battle." He waved his shadow-arm almost too fast for the human eye to follow, and Vincent was sent sailing into the air and across the city with tremendous velocity, screaming all the way. "Good bye, dear Vincent," said the figure. "Little shit."

The sound of marching could be heard from off to the west of the Hand. The figure looked down to the ground and saw several Green platoons marching towards him. It would seem that the headquarters of Centerpoint City had finally decided to do something about the giant Red contraption at the center of their city. "Ah, humans," said the figure as he gazed out at the Greens. "Never did know how to pick a fight. I guess this is as good a time for them to learn as any." And then he rose higher up into the air. His visor began to glow with blinding light, and in the next instant came from it a great red colored laser beam. The Greens had no chance. They attempted to scatter, but the beam traced along the ground faster than they could run, and in less than five seconds, more than a hundred Green bodies lay smoldering in a heap.

Then his attention turned to a different group, this one containing both Greens and Yellows. Lime and Lemon could only stand and stare, transfixed in amazement and horror, as the figure slowly levitated himself downwards and approached them from the air. The figure reached out with his right arm and touched his own chest plate, as if to point it out. "Why, hello there! I'm Amnion."


	44. The Awakening of Chaos

44 – THE AWAKENING OF CHAOS

Lime and Lemon Squadrons had their weapons trained on the black armored figure as he glided down towards them. After witnessing what Amnion had done to an entire Green contingent, they weren't willing to take any chances. Amnion lowered himself enough to set his feet in the ground, and then took a step towards the squadron with his arms outstretched. "What, no hugs? C'mon!"

"Stay right where you fucking are," Patton growled at the black armored soldier, his shotgun hoisted out in front of him like a cannon.

"I had thought that you would all be friendlier than this," said Amnion as he set his arms to his sides. "After all, you've become rather heroic of late, yes? Valiantly striding off to save the universe from an insane fusion coil. You've all made names for yourselves. Ah, but I do tell a lie. Because you see, I don't really have any intention of making friends with you. In order to exercise my regained power, I'm going to destroy this city. But all of you…well, you're going to watch with me as it happens."

Amnion waved his right hand, and from the metal ground that was the ceiling of the Hand, a giant metal wall rose up. It was perhaps ten meters tall when it stopped growing, and was situated directly behind Lime and Lemon. The group stared at the wall out of surprise. Then, before any of them could react, metal strips broke off from the outer surface of the wall, and curled around each and every member of Lime and Lemon, then yanked them onto the wall's surface. By the end of the moment, the wall had become a linear array of Green and Yellow soldiers, who were strapped to its surface like trapped insects. Amnion waved his hand again, and the wall suddenly rose from the ground, angling itself so that it stared down at the entire city.

As the wall was forming, so too had something else. An object had risen into the air along with the wall. It was a metallic throne, in full black chrome, much the same color and sheen as Amnion's armor. All edges of the throne were cold and sharp, and at the end of either armrest were geysers that spouted continuous red flames. Amnion sat into the throne, made a small grunt of discomfort, then hit a button at the right armrest. The back of the throne slid down at an angle, allowing Amnion to lean back in his seat. The throne now somewhat resembled a lawn chair.

"The destruction of this city should be quite a show," said Amnion. "Popcorn, anyone?" He then looked at the members of Lemon Squadron. "Or better yet, how about some lemonade?" He floated his lawn chair throne over to the wall, and looked straight into Hester's visor. "Sounds good, yes?"

"I think I'll pass," said Hester, while doing the best she could to avoid looking into Amnion's visor.

"Well all right," said Amnion. "I'm going to have some though. I was just trying to be considerate. Now then, where was I? Ah yes, the destruction of Centerpoint City."

Amnion pointed to one section of the city, far down below. The region was suddenly overtaken by a forest of black electrified spikes, which burst from the ground, destroying highway concrete, vehicles, and people alike. The crowds on the ground began to run instantly, those still alive trying to distance themselves from the dark forest as quickly as possible. But they never got the chance.

For the buildings caught in the forest suddenly began to move of their own volition. As Lime and Lemon watched with utter surprise, the buildings began to lean over, bringing their tops closer towards the ground. At the same time, giant holes opened up on their sides, and the group could see jaws of metal flowering wide, with teeth of glass lining their insides. The buildings then slid over the ground towards the fleeing crowds, curved themselves down to the ground, and swallowed the crowds whole.

"Can someone explain to me what is happening?" Ryan whispered to the others. "Because what I think I'm seeing is that giant spikes are coming up from the ground, and that buildings are eating people. And if I'm seeing buildings eating people, then I must be on something pretty powerful."

"If you're hallucinating, then so are we!" Jess exclaimed. "Because I'm seeing the exact same thing. How…how the hell is this happening? Is that guy really Amnion, the same character from that story book? And is _he_ really doing all of this?"

Amnion stared at Jess. "Well dear Jessie, those are some very good questions. And I think I might be able to answer them for you. Because I figure, since I'm going to destroy all of you, that you might as well know exactly _why_ I'm going to destroy all of you."

"Very considerate, of course," said Hearts sarcastically.

Said Amnion: "My answer to the second question is yes: I am, in fact, doing all of 'this.' And my response to the first question is: do you all _seriously_ remember me as a character from a storybook?"

"A book of creation stories," said Nome. "That is correct."

"Creation stories," said Amnion in angry disappointment. "My memory is read out by wee little children who need their diapers changed every couple hours. That is how the universe chose to have my history recorded for the present day. Now I remember exactly why I want to destroy all of existence."

Nome asked: "What do you mean, when you say that the _universe chose_ to have your memory—"

"Be quiet!" Amnion shouted at the medic. His tone was now angry and irritable, and much of the fun enthusiasm he had previously exhibited seemed to have worn off. He waved his hand out at the city, and several more buildings began to move, lean down, and eat people. The building that had first been turned into a monster was still chasing civilians in its section of the city. And as a sickening touch, Lime and Lemon could now see exactly what had happened to the people who had been inside the building at the time of its transformation: some of the windows on the first floor had opened up, and piles of blood, bone, guts, and shredded armor were pouring out in streams of red mush.

"This is seriously not cool!" Kenny shouted. Other members of Lemon and Lime were reacting in other ways. Jess was gagging, and Clair had decided to overt her visor from the scene on the ground altogether. Meanwhile, Kevin had started shuddering.

"This is but the very beginning," said Amnion coldly. "I told you all that this would be popcorn worthy. Should've listened."

The group suddenly began to hear a sound, which was very distant but quickly getting closer. They looked past Amnion's lawn chair throne to see the shapes of five Green Longsword Fighters, traveling in V formation and approaching their location. It would seem that the city had noticed the mysterious figure floating above the Hand, alongside a wall of restrained soldiers, and figured out that it must have something to do with the insanity on the ground. Amnion leaned out of his lawn chair throne. "So, they think they can get rid of me that easily, do they? I ought to set them straight." So he did.

Amnion extended his right hand, and in front of it, in a line, appeared roughly a dozen bright orange spherical objects: Kill Balls. But the black clad soldier wasn't done. He closed his palm and then rolled his hand, and in response the twelve Kill Balls changed shape. They all undid their spherical shape and molded into more nebulous, blob-like forms. And as Amnion continued to motion at them, they coalesced into a single object. Once they had merged, the large object elongated, thinning and forming a point at the far end. The end closest to Amnion was the broadest part, and it actually molded around his gauntlet. Soon the shape had finished changing, and both Lemon and Lime could now see it for what it was: a giant orange blade made from the stuff of Kill Balls, which was as long as one of the monstrous buildings below was tall.

Amnion stepped out of his chair, and began simply floating in the air. He then faced the incoming Longswords, turning the Kill Blade so that its cutting axis was the same as the line the fighters formed in the sky. And then, almost too fast for the human eye to see, Amnion lunged forward through the air. The Kill Blade moved with the same speed, becoming an orange flash of light that, for an instant, seemed to absorb the sky because of its size. There was a rush of air as the Kill Blade moved, and then a stream of flaming metal began to rain down from the sky. The Longswords were gone, and in their place was nothing but fire and smoke.

The Kill Blade, at the hand of Amnion, then continued its crusade against the city. It dove down to the ground, lunging like a falcon. The air base where the Longsword fleet had originated from began to fall over as two separate pieces, before something ignited and the entire building exploded into a plume of fire. After that, the Kill Blade began to dance. It hopped throughout the Capitol District, making explosions wherever it went. And wherever it struck, the area of the explosions it caused soon began to sprout little tiny electrified spikes, which grew to full size over the course of a few minutes. And as if that wasn't enough, the spikes began to spread like a disease. People began to try to run from the spikes, but many were electrocuted when the tips of fully grown spikes suddenly began to shoot bolts of lightning out from their tips. The entire city was now in an uproar, with civilians running everywhere. Between the monster buildings eating people, Amnion and his Kill Blade blowing things up, and spikes popping up everywhere, the city had dissolved into complete chaos. The group doubted that the fact that the Grand General had been captured by the Purples helped morale very much either.

Once the city had been pockmarked by sources of smoke, and regions of spikes, and moving buildings, Amnion flew back over to his lawn chair throne, which still happened to be floating in front of the wall restraining Lemon and Lime. "A good show, yes?" Amnion shouted over at the group as he sat back in the lawn chair throne, to relax and watch the city slowly die at the hands of chaos.

"Why are you doing this?" Clair exclaimed. "Amnion, this is horrible!"

Amnion put his gauntlet to his chin in deep thought. "Well, it's all really a matter of interpretation, I suppose. I happen to be an artist by trade, you see. An artist who paints scenes of destruction. So while some people may see horror, others may see beauty. It's all just a matter of perspective, really."

"You're no artist," Clair hissed at the black clad soldier. "You're just a monster!"

"That too," said Amnion. "I spare no compunctions." He apparated a glass of lemonade from the air, which appeared in his right hand. A bowl of buttery popcorn appeared in his left. Amnion turned the view of his lawn chair throne back to the city down below. The sound of munching started, along with a sucking sound every now and then.

The city was steadily being taken over by the forests of metallic electrified spikes, which were spreading throughout the city like a plague. At the same time, the monster buildings had also drastically increased in number; it seemed as though the presence of the spike forests somehow allowed for the probability of the buildings within them to become monsters. In any case, roughly two dozen of the gluttonous behemoths were now tearing throughout the five districts, chasing people and gobbling up anyone who wasn't fast enough. By this time, electricity had returned to the city, and the Green Army had begun to send vehicle-based forces after the buildings, but it didn't seem to be having any effect. The buildings were too large and too massive to be even intimidated by the various Warthogs and Scorpion Tanks in their way, and all too often the groups of forces stationed in the paths of the buildings were just swallowed up before they had a chance to do anything.

From near the Hand, a particularly large explosion lit up the Capitol District. "Mmmm, wonderful," Amnion commented with a belly laugh of appreciation, as he slurped on some lemonade while slobbishly consuming a mouthful of popcorn.

On the wall, Wren leaned over as much as she could towards her sister. "We need to get out of here," she whispered.

"You think?" said Hester.

"Can you move at all?" Wren asked.

Hester shook her helmet. "These bindings are keeping me completely still. How about you?"

Wren struggled. The circular metal clasp that had her around the waist and connected her to the wall was extremely tight, but as she massaged her arms at her sides, she felt her arms begin to move upwards, by perhaps a few millimeters with each yank. "I think I might be about to get loose…" She looked upwards and saw Amnion's visor staring her right in the face. She straightened for an instant, startled.

"Boo!" said Amnion. "I can hear everything you say, you know." The clasp restraining Wren tightened, so much that her armor began to dent slightly. She groaned in pain. Amnion continued: "And since you've started talking about escaping, I think it's about time we moved things along."

The wall began to descend back towards the ground. Amnion, in his lawn chair throne, kept altitude with them. Once they had all reached ground level, the wall clamped to a halt at the floor of the top surface of the Hand, while the lawn chair throne came down to a gentle rest right in front of it. In a particularly sinister tone of voice, Amnion said: "We're going to play a game." He extended his right hand to the sky, and the gigantic Kill Blade descended from the sky, coming to float directly above his throne. Amnion molded the hilt of the Kill Blade to form around his gauntlet, and then angled the Blade slowly downwards, so that it faced the wall horizontally. He then moved the tip of the Blade along the prisoners until it stopped in front of Hester's visor.

Hester looked up slowly at Amnion. "I am immune to fear of death."

Amnion leaned forward in his lawn chair throne. "Oh, I bet you are. But I'm not going to simply kill you, little Yellow. Because that would be too_…easy…_"

"Then what do you want?"

Amnion released a long, bellowous laugh. "Here's how the game is played. You're the leader of both Lemon and Lime Squadrons, yes? Which means that you get to make all the important decisions. And what could possibly be more important than the lives of your squad?"

A tinge of nervousness began to take hold of Hester. "What…what do you mean?"

Amnion threw into the air a six sided die, catching it on the palm of his left gauntlet. "I'm going to kill…four…other members of Lime and Lemon Squadron. You will decide who they are and in which order they go."

"NO!" Hester shouted. "I will never do that!"

Amnion didn't listen, instead getting off of his throne and slowly walking towards the wall. The Kill Blade altered its shape as the black clad soldier walked, modifying its size to accommodate Amnion's distance from Lemon and Lime. "Who will she choose first, I wonder? Will she decide that those in Lemon should die with honor and sacrifice…or will she let her aged hatred for the Green Army take over, and decide that some of the Greens will perish?"

"I refuse to play your game!" Hester exclaimed through her teeth.

Amnion moved the tip of the Blade to face Wren. "You will choose…or I will make the choice for you."

"_Not her!"_ Hester shouted before she could regain control of herself.

"Struck a nerve, have I?" Amnion laughed.

"Hey!" Hearts called over to Amnion. "Leave her alone. Take me!"

"No!" Wren shouted back at him. "Don't sacrifice yourself for me. I'll go. I'm not afraid."

"I can't lose you!" Hester shouted.

Amnion broke into a fit of laugher. "And all of a sudden, everyone starts trying to play the hero. Take me! No, take me! Ahahahaha!"

"Shut up!" Hester screamed at Amnion. "_Just shut up! Stop it!_"

"On second thought, maybe I'll just kill the sister," said Amnion. "Things might be a bit less stupid that way, less people offering themselves up to me as sacrifices." Hester screamed again. "You know, it really doesn't matter at all," Amnion continued. "All of you will die eventually. The order is unimportant."

"Just let me go, sis, it's okay," said Wren.

"No…I can't…" said Hester, desperation in her tone. Her visor began to stare at the floor.

"Oh, how touching," said Amnion with painfully obvious sarcasm. "Goodbye, Wren Sharp." He poised his Blade for the kill.

"AMNION, STOP THIS!" came a voice from behind Amnion.

Amnion temporarily lowered the Kill Blade. "What's this, another poor sap who thinks he can stop me…oh, it's you…"

A fusion coil floated above the ground near the edge of the top surface of the Hand. Its core was glowing red, a sign it had sustained heavy damage. But everyone could see who it was. "This has gone more than far enough," said Vincent.

"Why, if it isn't my former pawn," said Amnion with derision. "How's life been going, eh? Still keeping your containment plating in good shape?"

"Release them," Vincent demanded.

Amnion removed his gauntlet from the hilt of the Kill Blade and crossed his arms. "From this world, maybe."

"_I said release them!_" Vincent barked at the top of his voice.

"Or what?" Amnion asked him.

"Or I will destroy you."

"Oh, you'll_ destroy_ me, will you?" Amnion mocked. "You're in the mood for another flying lesson, aren't you?"

"You have used me and my people," said Vincent. "Made a mockery of everything we have worked for…and all so that you can spread chaos and insanity across the universe."

Amnion extended his arms. "Well that's the thing I do best, now isn't it? You've got to use your full potential, and I aim to please. Now, are you done yet, or am I going to have to explode you?"

"Goodbye, Amnion," said Vincent. At that moment, his core began to glow with brilliant white light. Pieces of metal and other debris began to rise from the ground, filled with telekinetic energy.

"What're you doing?" Amnion barked at Vincent.

"I was never able to accomplish my objective, to find retribution for my pile," said Vincent. "But that doesn't matter anymore. For I have seen the universe that you would create in my place, Amnion: an existence of nightmares and horror. I won't have it. I will stop you, and it will be the last thing I do!" A sphere of light now surrounded Vincent, which was building in intensity and getting larger.

"You're going to overload your own core with your last remaining telekinetic energy," Amnion realized aloud. He then laughed. "But that will kill you, of course."

"I will give my life to protect the universe from you," was Vincent's response. The light began to eclipse the surface of the top of the Hand, its radius approaching Amnion.

Amnion now seemed slightly nervous, for he was backing away from the light as though he really didn't want to touch it. He reached up and grabbed the Kill Blade, then sliced it at the light sphere, but the blade phased out of existence as soon as it made contact. "No…" Amnion mumbled.

"Whatever Vincent is doing appears to be working," Nome commented to the rest of Lemon and Lime.

Amnion now had his gauntlets placed up in front of his face in a defensive posture. "Vincent, you must surely realize that this is not enough to destroy me. It may exorcize me from this city, but I will return." He had now backed up enough that he was nearly running against the wall.

"Go to Hell, Amnion!" was the last thing that Vincent said. Then the ball of light surrounding him exploded, instantly filling the entire city with light. For the briefest of instants, Centerpoint City looked more beautiful than it ever had at any point in its history. The buildings gleamed, all of them instantly reverting to their inanimate state. The forests of metal spikes disintegrated. The fires became extinguished. The entire city gleamed with light, full of colors that no one had ever even seen before. There was no word for these colors, for they were not in the visible spectrum, and were entirely different, creating a new visible spectrum all their own.

And Amnion was screaming in pain. He had partially reverted to his shadow form, and wisps of him were being tugged by the light towards the sky. Amnion fought the light as best he could, be he was sliding away. "You will not destroy me!" he shouted back at Vincent. "I will return, you hear me! I will be back, and this universe will fall to me! I may leave this city…" He pointed to the sky. "But I will use those whom dwell above."

The light sent out one final pulse, and Amnion was gone.

The wall disintegrated, the clasps phased out of existence, and Lemon and Lime Squadrons fell to the ground. They massaged themselves, getting circulation back as best they could. Hester ran over to Wren as soon as she had regained her feet. "Are you all right?" she asked concernedly.

"Yeah…I think so—" Hester hugged her.

Meanwhile, several people were still recovering. "Uhg…" Kevin moaned. "Is it over?"

"I think so," said Clair. "My God, what a day…" The two of them helped each other to their feet.

Skope looked out at the city. "I can't believe all of this just happened." Though Amnion and his monster buildings and his forests of spikes were gone, the city had taken heavy damage. Debris was everywhere, and every district had many buildings missing (though the Western District looked as though it had been flattened). A thought then occurred to him. "Vincent!"

The fusion coil was lying on the ground, looking most sincerely worse for wear. He was unable to levitate from the ground at all now, and his core's light was flickering. Skope rushed over to him, flanked by Patton and Nome. The rest of the group soon crowded around the fusion coil. Skope reached down. "Vincent…"

"Skope…" Vincent said. His voice was barely audible, and very weak. "Skope…you came for me…" His voice no longer possessed any hatred for the Green, instead sounding more relieved than anything else.

"We're all here," said Skope softly. "You saved us all."

"A payment for my own sins, I suppose," said Vincent.

"Vincent, if it makes any difference," Skope started.

"No, don't apologize," Vincent interrupted, before coughing. "Skope…listen…"

The group all leaned closer.

"_I_ forgive _you._

Skope reached down and petted the fusion coil a few times, tenderly on his upper casing. Vincent's core lit up slightly as he did so, a sign of appreciation.

"No more trying to pop the universe out of existence, then?" Skope asked, somewhat jokingly.

"Eh, I think that is behind me now," Vincent replied. The then lapsed into a small coughing fit. Even now, none of Lemon or Lime had any idea how it was possible for a fusion coil to cough. They suspected that the current understanding of fusion coil anatomy was going to undergo a few revolutions in the near future. Once Vincent seemed as though he had gotten through the bout of coughing, he said to Skope: "Actually, I think I should apologize. In the attempt to get revenge for my pile…I did so many terrible things."

"It's okay," said Skope.

"No, it's not," said Vincent, his tone turning serious. "Amnion is still out there, and he was definitely correct when he said that he would return. You must believe me when I tell you that this universe is now in far more danger than it ever was during my own campaign."

"Dude, we fucking believe you!" Kenny concurred, after looking out at the state of Centerpoint City.

Vincent continued: "When my pile exploded, I was so…angry…and so distraught. For maybe an hour, I just teleported from dimension to dimension. Before its destruction, my pile had been migrating to a land filled with ponies, because we had heard that it was a very nice place."

"I think we might actually have been there," said Clair.

"After my pile had been lost, I searched for this land," said Vincent. "But in my anguish, I could not focus enough to remember how to reach it. So I simply wandered through the worlds. Then I…heard a voice inside myself, calling me to one particular dimension. I was led by this voice into a very cold chamber, where a crystal prison floated above a pedestal."

"That must be the dimension that Brian and Master Chief went to using the teleporter in Red Base," Deryn postulated.

Vincent continued: "The voice was coming from the crystal. It encouraged me to release it from its prison, and that if I did then I would be given the capabilities to exact retribution for the destruction of my pile. It directed me to follow certain steps, to release the force field around the crystal prison. In my emotional state, I could not disobey the voice, for I had wanted revenge so very much…so I did as the voice commanded."

"And released Amnion into the universe," Ryan put in. "Thank you so very much."

"The prison…shattered, like an explosion of glass. And then a shadow emerged from the crystal. The shadow took me into it, and together we tore out of the chamber. The shadow directed us to another dimension, one with metallic tree-like pillars."

"The forest that the Reds used to inhabit, before they became an Army," said Jess. "Which is located at the center of the Swirling Abyss of Absentmindedness."

"Yes," said Vincent. "Amnion said that we needed to recruit an Army that could do our bidding. So we went to the village of tree-dwellers. I spoke to them, telling them of the many worlds that there are in existence, and explaining that those worlds could be theirs if only they followed me. Everything I said was, of course, pre-planned by Amnion. He oversaw everything that I did, to ensure that things were progressing as he saw fit. There was some dissent among the tree-dwellers, of course. But the majority of the town's council agreed, and so the tree-dwelling civilization became the Red Army. Both me and the shadow spawned the tools and weapons necessary to make the Reds a fighting force. Amnion was capable of creating entire ships from nothingness, which is something that I still cannot do."

"Thankfully," said Kevin.

"Giving the Reds direction, we began the construction of a fortress," Vincent continued. "And at the same time, we sent out operatives to begin construction of the Hand. At the time, Amnion was busy creating ships, and so in order to gain the parts necessary for the Hand, I had to send Red soldiers out into Blue territory, to steal the parts required."

Patton had his arms crossed. "And then later, when the Hand had been completed, you sent the Hand back to wipe out all the bases you had taken parts from, to cover up the fact that the project had ever taken place."

"Yes," Vincent admitted. "Too many lives were lost because of me. Too many…" He then launched into another coughing fit. This one lasted for several minutes. When it was finally over, the fusion coil rotated in its axis to face Skope, and said: "Skope…forgive me…" He tried to rasp something else, but was unable to. His core had grown very dim, to the point where it was difficult for the group to tell if it was even illuminated at all.

"We all forgive you, Vincent," said Skope. He petted the top surface of the fusion coil again.

"Forgive…me…"

Vincent's core lost the last of its light.

Skope leaned back in sorrow. "Is he dead?"

Nome extended his arm, with is tacpad directly over the fusion coil. "Mmmmmm, it is difficult to say. There is a very low-energy system still functioning within the core. If this is what constitutes a life sign, then Vincent may still be alive."

"He is?" said Skope, perking up.

"I am purely postulating at this point," said Nome. "But I believe Vincent is in…a coma. Assuming that it is possible for fusion coils to be in comas."

Suddenly, from all around the group, came a chorus of other voices. They all looked up, and realized that during the conversation with Vincent, they had become surrounded by a horde of other fusion coils, who had now formed a ring around Lemon and Lime. Patton pulled out Lucy, but Skope stopped him. "I don't think that's necessary," Skope explained. "They aren't here to hurt us."

In a line, some of the fusion coils rolled towards Vincent. Solemnly, they surrounded the comatose coil, then hoisted him up on their casings, and started to carry Vincent along with them. The rest of the fusion coil group joined them, many emitting sounds of sobbing. Soon, all of the fusion coils had coalesced into something of a blob, with Vincent's body being carried on top. As one unit, the horde of fusion coils carried Vincent off of the surface of the top of the Hand…and into the sky. Lemon and Lime watched the fusion coils leave, many wondering if they were still in reality (many things in the recent past had caused them to ask this question, of course). The band of fusion coils ascended to a height far above the city. And then, with a flash, they all disappeared from this dimension, carrying Vincent off to new and different worlds.

Nome shrugged. "Ah, well. They can probably care for Vincent better than we can, in any case."

Hearts turned to stare at Nome. "Nothing ever perturbs you, does it? No matter how strange?"

"I am a man of science and research," said Nome proudly, as if that in any way answered Hearts' question.

Skope was now staring out at the city. For the first time in several days, he felt free. The constant thought, of Vincent placing the universe in peril, was no longer haunting him. It was true that there was now a new, vastly more powerful force, placing the universe in peril. But right now, Skope was glad to know that at least he wasn't directly responsible for its existence. For he had forgiven Vincent. And more importantly, Vincent had forgiven him. It seemed for a moment, that life had almost returned to normal. Then he remembered the invasion of the Purple Army, and realized that life hadn't after all.

Hester's tacpad beeped. "Yellow Command needs us," she said. "We'll need to head to the airport. We better get going." The others nodded, and began to leave. As a group, Lemon and Lime headed off to face whatever next was lying in store for them.


	45. The Six Way War Begins

45 – THE SIX WAY WAR BEGINS

Vorennius held his head high as he strode diligently down the corridors of the _Edge of Glory_. All along the way, Purple soldiers stopped in their tracks, straightened, and saluted the Admiral as he walked past. The aroma of victory was in the air. Centerpoint City had been devastated by the recent attack, and perhaps even more importantly, the Grand General of the Green Army had been captured. This was the moment of the Purple Army.

Vorennius was on his way to visit his prize. A lift took him and Nezilus Thane deep into the lowest sectors of the ship. Here, the heat from the engines could be felt in part, for the air was thick with heat, and the steel bulkheads were warm to the touch. Prolonged stay at decks this close to the back of the ship proved to be exhausting for those without adaptive insulation in their armor, which was the reason why shifts in these sectors never lasted for long. It was, therefore, the perfect place to set up the holding cells. The guards led Vorennius and Thane through a keypadded door, into a hallway which was lined with four by four meter cells on both sides. Shield walls separated the main corridor from each of the rooms. There was only one prisoner in this cell block, for they were too special to place with anyone else. Vorennius and Thane walked down the hallway. Standing at both sides were a line of guards, all of whom stood at attention at the Admiral's presence. They came towards the one cell that stood at the very end of the long hallway.

And there he was.

Sparsely illuminated by the intentionally dark lighting of the cell block, the Admiral could see a green-hued silhouette slumped down upon the left wall. And even though the prisoner still had his helmet on, Vorennius could immediately tell that it was the Grand General. They way that the prisoner attempted to hide his fatigue from the heat, by holding himself up from the ground ever so lightly, was a demonstration of the Grand General's notorious love of dignified public perception. Also, the Green was humming to himself, in the same inane manner that he was rumored to always do when in times of solitude. The Green soldier looked up.

Vorennius regarded coldly the leader of the Green Army. "Hello…Richard Face."

The Grand General got up and walked slowly towards the shield wall separating the two of them. "My God, you really are still alive." He stared at the face of the Admiral for a few moments, during which the two of them exchanged daggers through their visors. "You've come to gloat, haven't you?" he then said.

"I had thought you would remember me better," said Vorennius. "I am not the gloating type."

"Then why have you come?"

The Admiral declined to respond, instead hitting the keypad to the cell. The shield wall disappeared, and several guards escorted Vorennius inside. The Grand General stood at as tall a stance as he could manage, doing his best to seem menacing. Though of course, no one was intimidated.

"You've made a mistake, attacking Centerpoint City," said the Grand General. "The Green-Yellow Alliance will hunt you down in order to get me back."

"A mistake, was it?" asked the Admiral slowly. "I'm sorry to inform you that the Green-Yellow Alliance has no idea where we are. An hour ago, we jumped to the Froman System, and remained there for a few minutes, just to throw the Yellows on the wrong trail. Now, we are back in slipsapce, and en route to a very special destination."

"Roster Teth," said the Grand General. "Where else would you be taking me?"

"An obvious guess," said the Admiral. "Which is exactly why it is incorrect. No doubt, you think that Roster Teth is the base of all the Purple Army's operations. It does host a great many of them, of course. But not most of them."

"What?" said the Grand Genearal, dumbfounded. "Then…where? Where in the _universe _are you taking me?"

The Admiral briefly allowed a subtle smile underneath his helmet. "All in due time, my prisoner."

The Grand General instinctively looked down at his legs, trying to make it seem as though he was depressed. He moved his hands along the lower parts of his shins, back and forth, with increasingly frantic manner.

"We removed the transmitter hidden in your left kneecap, before we even left XBOXL1V's system," Vorennius explained. "As I said before, the Yellow-Green Alliance has not the slightest idea where you are, and no way of tracking you. There is no rescue coming."

The Grand General now became genuinely depressed. "Damn you…" he whispered.

"Do you still think I made a mistake in capturing you?" the Admiral asked again. "I think one thing that you're thinking about right now…is the mistake you made, three years ago."

The Grand General looked up at the Admiral slowly. "I let you live."

The Admiral nodded. "You had no way of knowing it at the time, but your siege of Roster Teth failed in a crucial way. You had managed to kill all of the Admirals, all except for one. It is somewhat ironic that your 'victory' at Roster Teth is what catapulted you to the rank of Grand General, when during it you made the most fatal mistake of your career. All the others in the Purple Army's inner circle had been destroyed…all except for me."

"And you think that revenge is the answer?"

"In addition to wrecking havoc upon all of Roster Teth's major cities, you robbed my Army of a great leader. The Lord Commander…she was a far greater leader than you could ever even dream of being."

The Grand General gave a grunt of laughter. "Is that what this is all about for you, avenging the death of your master and mentor?"

"The Lord Commander was the light of the Purple Army. She brought order to all of its systems. She also taught me everything I know. All that I am, I owe to her. She was the greatest leader that the galaxy ever knew." The Admiral took a step closer to the Grand General. "And you killed her without any honor, nuking her from above before she had a chance to react. She did not deserve to die that way."

"Was there honor in what you did to Centerpoint City?" the Grand General shot back.

The Admiral took a breath. "Ah, but you misunderstand me. I did not attack you primarily out of a lust for vengeance. Though your Army does indeed deserve to suffer for what it did, my campaign is about something more: it is about principle."

"Is that so?" the Grand General asked in a sarcastic tone.

The Admiral explained: "The Yellow, Green, and Blue armies have launched campaigns against each other relentlessly for the last three years, covering the entire galaxy in a shroud of meaningless war that has resulted in countless unnecessary deaths. My only objective, in the long run, is to end this war, and from its ashes create a galaxy that is ruled by order and purpose."

"You think you can end war by making war?"

"But of course," said the Admiral. "Peace is but an illusion. At no point in human history has peace ever been realized because of its own right. Even in the days of the Old World, it was administrations of tight control that were necessary to prevent war. The only thing that can, is power."

"You believe in the Old World?" the Grand General laughed. "That's a fairy tale."

"And ignorance is bliss," the Admiral countered. "There is more to the existence of the Old World in our history than you know."

"You're referencing more secrets that you will refuse to share with me, I assume," said the Grand General. "I hope that the story of the Old World isn't where you get all your ideals from. I know where true power comes from. Power of the people, to make their own decisions. Power of democracy."

The Admiral shook his visor. "Democracy is, by its very nature, amorphous. It invites anarchy. You know not of what you speak."

The Grand General stared at Vorennius determinedly. "Civilizations controlled by their own people, act at the interests of their own people. They are therefore free from false distinctions, and from the tyranny of oppression. Democracy is power."

"Guards, seize him," the Admiral ordered. Guards on both sides of the Grand General took hold of both his arms and dragged him upwards. The Grand General looked around in confusion.

"Bring him to his knees," said the Admiral, as if he were making a comment about the weather. The guards each punched the Grand General in the gut. The Green gagged, then lost his footing.

"Twist his arms." The guards brought the Green's arms behind his back. The Grand General tensed in pain, but was disciplined enough not to make a sound.

"Cut his throat."

One of the guards took out a combat knife and raised it to the Grand General's neck. "_Admiral!_" the Grand General screamed in surprise and fear.

"Stop!" the Admiral said quickly. He shrugged matter-of-factly. "I have changed my mind. Release him." The guards dropped the Grand General to the floor. The Grand General was panting heavily and massaging the place on his neck where the knife had been. The Admiral walked up to the Grand General, got down on a knee, and looked the Green straight in the visor.

"_Control _is power."

The Admiral then stood up and walked out of the cell, with the guards following him. "Come, Thane," he said to his bodyguard. "We are finished here." And with that, the two of them left the Grand General with none but the guards, so that he could wallow in solitude and self-pity.

* * *

Lemon and Lime Squadrons arrived on Yellow Command with extreme haste, and were just in time to learn that there was no emergency. Bradley wanted to talk to them, but said that it could be on their own time. And so, they headed to the mess hall, because they were famished after the events of the day. Along the way, they noticed that basically every light bulb they came across was a new one, and even saw several crews going around and replacing light bulbs. This was, of course, because the station had been hit with an electromagnetic pulse only hours before, and so virtually all of the circuits on the station were in need of repair.

Then came the mess hall, and much eating. They all sat around one table, stuffing their faces. They were perhaps a half an hour into it when Brian radioed them, saying that he was alone in the hotel suite in Centerpoint City, and wondering where everyone else was. Lemon contacted one of the Greens in the city, and told them to collect Brain and escort him to the station. After another half an hour had passed, Brian stood before Lime and Lemon. It was at about this point when Lime and Lemon collectively finished eating, and so the whole group got up and left to find the Bridge, where Bradley was waiting for them.

Bradley was lounging in his command chair, staring out through the windows into the vacuum of space. His daydreams were interrupted when Hester cleared her throat. He swiveled around in the next instant. "Ah, Lime. Lemon. Welcome. Again." He had clearly not had much sleep in a long time, and the temporary paralysis of the station during the attack on Centerpoint City had no doubt had a negative effect on his energy state as well. He slowly heaved himself from his command chair, then used his legs to carry him over to Lemon and Lime. "Yeah, uh, we've got some things to talk about."

"Have you located Guy and Travis yet?" Skope asked.

"I have, actually," said Bradley. "A group of Reds had apprehended them, but some of my soldiers liberated them a few minutes ago. They are being escorted to this station as we speak."

"Good," said Amber. "They saved our asses when we were in the Capitol District."

"So I hear," said Bradley. "Both the Red and the Purple are clearly friends of ours. Something to keep in mind for the future. However…that is not what I have wanted to talk about."

"I know, bro," said Patton. "You don't have to tell us. Centerpoint City is a mess now. The Grand General has been captured by the Purple Army. And then there's the subject of that entity who called himself Amnion…" Others in the group shuddered at the mention of Amnion's name.

The Lord High Commander General slowly looked, in turn, at everyone's visors. "There is more," said Bradley gravely.

"What more could possibly be wrong at this point?" Ryan blurted out. "We've covered the whole gamut by this point, haven't we? What is left?"

Bradley approached the holographic console. "The nature of the war itself." He hit a key, and a photonic representation of the planet came into view, colored like some tapestry with primary colors. Of the hundreds of territories on the planet's surface, each was hued with the color of the Army that currently controlled it. "To state it accurately…" Bradley said slowly. "…The galactic conflict has reached a new stage in its evolution. It would seem the events at Centerpoint City today have served as a catalyst for the ambitions of the new arrivals to the war: the Red, Purple, and Orange Armies."

"In what way do you mean, exactly?" Deryn asked.

"That all three of them have come entirely out of hiding, and begun domination campaigns, not just in this sector of space, but all over the galaxy as well."

Startled gasps came from Lime and Lemon Squadrons. At the same time, Bradley began a time dilation animation of the status on the planet, of the last few hours. Several things on the holographic sphere changed: the single orange square that represented the last refuge of Orange territory suddenly blossomed into a dozen-square large grid. At the same time, the Purple bases sprinkled thorough the planet suddenly enlarged, replacing mainly Blue territories. And the Red territories exponentially increased, at one location managing to absorb a small continent's worth of land. In short, the planet had become much more diverse in color.

"Now, all three of the new Armies are fighting full force. The Oranges are the most prominent example of this: less than twelve hours ago, they were concealed in their last little territory, trying to hide and not be noticed. But all of a sudden, they have begun sending soldiers in every direction, and bases of the Big Three have started falling like dominoes. The same is true for the Red and Purple Armies. So far, it is mainly the Blues who have had to take the brunt of these assaults, though I have already lost three major bases on this planet, and the Green Army is reporting similar losses." He then cleared his throat. "But here's where we get to the worst part."

The group tensed, wondering that more there could possibly be. "That wasn't the worst part yet?" Kenny asked. "This day really seems to have it in for us."

Bradley continued: "Other planets, all over the galaxy, have begun reporting similar happenings. It turns out that all three of the new armies have had sleeper cells waiting to break out at the right moment." He altered the view of the hologram, to a view of the entire galaxy. Sure enough, the territory colors now showed not just three, but six, different hues, and the newest three were blossoming like sunflowers. "One of the Yellow strongholds, in the Fubar System, has just fallen to the Orange Army. And the Greens have already lost two worlds, one to the Reds and one to the Purples. This has effectively become a six-way war, on this world, and for the entire galaxy."

Hearts shrugged. "Well, the war economy's having a good day, at least." It was such a phenomenally bad joke that Deryn could not help jabbing him in the chestplate with her elbow.

"Why is this happening?" Clair asked. "I mean, why now?"

"I think there are several reasons," said Bradley. "The Purple Army's motive is the most obvious: they have just attacked Centerpoint City, which was, until today, the most elusive and fortified city in the entire galaxy. Even though the city still stands, it has been devastated by the attack, and the Purples feel the wind at their backs after having participated in a demonstration of such power. Also, the Admiral now has the Grand General in his possession, and he has never been known to rest on his laurels. He intends to strike hard and fast at the other Armies, especially while one of the Big Three is still reeling from the invasion of its capitol city. I have little doubt that Centerpoint City is only one more phase in his vile scheme to spread his vision of 'order and purpose' to the galaxy. Tyranny wrapped in pretty words, is what I call it…"

"And what of the Orange Army?" Tom asked. "They have hardly had a presence in the war until today. In fact, only a few days ago, the Purple Army nearly annihilated them, when it stormed that part of the continent."

Bradley nodded. "A good point, Shaw. Their motive is definitely harder to discern, but I think I might have some idea…" He took a small moment to think. "Most likely, the Empress realizes the critical state that the Orange Army is in. She knows that if her Army waits much longer, it will be ground into dust by the next Army that tries to move it out of the way. The Oranges need territory, and they need it now. Interestingly, they have the most widespread presence in the galaxy at large, right now. And though their appearances are many, each individual contingent of them that has been sighted so far is very small, with only minute numbers of ships to a group. This means that the Oranges are either searching desperately for a more secure base camp, or looking for something else of importance…or both, most likely. And, there's something else: The Purple Army could have ended them a few days ago, yet it did not. The Purples allowed the Orange Army to live, and I cannot help but wonder if that fact is somehow related to whatever the Oranges think they are doing in the galaxy at this moment. There is still so much we do not know…"

"And what of the Reds?" Nome asked. "So far, their presence has been exclusive to this world, though it has proved to be exceedingly powerful in that time."

Bradley nodded. "Yes, it has. And as the galaxy as a whole goes, I think they have just demonstrated their power most effectively." He pulled up a separate window from the holoprojector, showing a cityscape on some distant world. Hovercraft zoomed by a massive square, which was surrounded by skyscrapers thousands of meters tall. Then explosions broke out. In the sky, a giant Red craft loomed over the city. At first, Lime and Lemon took it to be the Hand, but as the view zoomed in, the object revealed itself to be a gigantic starship: a capitol ship, if its size was any indication. The words _Instrument of Chaos_ were painted in the color of blood on the side of the ship that the camera could see. The ship was far more massive than basically any ship that Lime or Lemon had ever seen before, appearing to be roughly ten kilometers long, and rivaling the city with its volume. A white light emerged from the ship in a beam, and the camera view suddenly fizzled out. "That city was completely annihilated," Bradley explained. "This is the planet I mentioned before, that the Greens lost to the Reds. The rest of its surface has been vaporized as well."

"That is an insanely huge starship," said Ryan. "Does anyone disagree?"

"Instrument of Chaos," said Hester. "The very name reminds me of that entity who called himself Amnion."

"When he was holding us all captive on top of the Hand, Amnion mentioned that he would take control of the Red Army," said Clair.

Nome nodded. "We also know that Amnion was working behind Vincent. It is likely that Amnion is now the leader of the Red Army."

"The Reds, so far, have had the most destructive of the campaigns of the new armies, upon the galaxy at large," said Bradley. "Though they have destroyed only one world…as of yet…they have been seen with large numbers of large ships at all encounters. Given this information, I think it safe to conclude that Amnion, as the leader of the Red Army, has been planning this siege campaign ever since he has been free within this universe."

Kevin shivered. "No matter what way we look at things, they seem so bad."

"I concur," said Jess as she gazed at the hologram of XBOXL1V in nervousness. "A six way war has been started…and because of this planet's location, we're all right in the center of it. A terrible firestorm is about to break out here, if I had to guess."

"I'm ready for it," was Patton's stern response.

* * *

Bradley waited until a few minutes after Lime and Lemon had departed the bridge. He really didn't want them overhearing this next conversation, for his contact was usually very picky (and sometimes paranoid) about the ears that listened to his conversations, and Bradley was in no mood to upset his boss. He tapped a code for a secure channel into the central console, and the image of the planet was replaced by the cylinder-shaped helmet of a very prominent Yellow soldier.

Victarion Halcor was a very large man, measuring to a height of just above two meters outside of his armor. In his armor, a steel fortress of apparel, he towered over all other soldiers. His presence was also known well in terms of his personality: he was a man who loved war above all else. He lived for it. He had been a general for most of his life, only recently having attained the leadership of the entire Yellow Army. His powerful status was no accident, as anyone who had ever tried to cross him would tell. Bradley had no intention of being the latest in the long line of victims whose military careers had been destroyed because they disagreed with the Supreme Lord Commander General of the Yellow Army.

Bradley gave a strong salute. "Supreme Lord Commander General."

"Bradley Patton," said Halcor in his characteristically booming and powerful voice. "It is about time that you responded. The many situations developing all over the galaxy have not improved in the latest moments."

"So I hear," said Bradley. "But firstly, allow me to offer my condolences for Marillion. His loss must be affecting you deeply."

Victarion Halcor waved a gauntlet. "I need no comfort in light of his death. Connections with his half of the family have been very strained of late, ever since their defection to the Green Army." Some years ago, the powerful and prestigious Halcor family had split in two, when half of them had decided they had better assets within the Green Army. Victarion, in particular, had seen this as a betrayal. So when Marillion Halcor, who had captained the Green capitol ship _Grand Castellan, _had died during the Battle of Centerpoint City, it was little wonder that Victarion was having a difficult time feeling. The Halcor bloodline was never known for compassion. Separations between Armies compounded this even further.

"The Green and Yellow Armies are in an alliance now," Bradley offered.

"A _temporary_ alliance," said Halcor tersely. "And don't forget that this was your idea. The Yellow-Green Alliance is only valid for as long as the Red, Purple, and Orange Armies continue to prove a nuisance to us. I still haven't figured out how you managed to talk me into these arrangements with the Greens. I have decided they are worth keeping, of course. But this friendship is on a leash. A very short leash."

Bradley nodded. "Of course, Supreme Lord Commander General. Now then, have you decided what to do about the recent turn of the war?"

"I have, in fact," said Halcor. "In light of our alliance, I have deemed it necessary that our two Armies work together to find a solution to this crisis. We have an alliance, we might as well use it."

"And what does that entail?"

"There is to be a war council," Halcor explained. "The top officials of both Armies will get together, and discuss plans for the war concerning the three Armies that have only recently entered into it. This will, of course, have to wait until the Greens have chosen someone to take the place of the Grand General."

"Of course," said Bradley. "The Green Army will be needing an acting leader before it will be able to host any war councils."

"Indeed," said Halcor. "But this is not actually why I asked for this conversation. There is something else. Something that concerns you, in fact."

"I figured as much, sir," said Bradley. "What is your bidding?"

"There is a…asset…that I need you to take care of."

"An asset?" Bradley asked. "What kind of asset?"

"There is a reason this planet is fought over so much," said Halcor. "Abundance of resources, of course. But even more than that, something lies beneath the surface of this planet. The Reds figured this out before we did, which is a shame, because I believe that whatever this is, is responsible for this planet's value in the war."

"Interseting," said Bradley.

Halcor continued: "We have gleaned data from a group of Brown mercenaries, who were killed by a band of fusion coils. Their sensors show that these fusion coils went underground beneath a base, searching for a power supply of some kind. And the energy signature became so powerful while they were down there, that the sensors actually cut out. I sent my own soldiers down there, but the Reds had already taken or destroyed whatever this thing was. But fortunately, there is more: recently, some of my soldiers used sonar data given to us from Centerpoint City, combined it with our own, and have discovered one particular location within the crust of the planet that we believe holds another of this…thing, whatever it actually is. You are to lead the effort to uncover it."

"I see," said Bradley, stoking the bottom of his helmet in thought. "This sounds very important. A discovery such as this could revolutionize the war effort."

"And there is one other thing," said Halcor.

"Your command is my mission," said Bradley devoutly.

"You are to mention _none _of this to the Green Army."

CONTINUED IN STAGE 4


End file.
